tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58016635154109090942018-03-02T07:32:45.038-08:00Bungy NotesBe Flexible. Be Strange.Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-73027279192481987322012-11-19T09:02:00.000-08:002012-11-19T09:03:38.949-08:00Bungy Notes Has Moved<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YUuYtHnUnO8/UKplNZ_liWI/AAAAAAAABRI/XTO08ZU8aAg/s1600/Bungy+Notes+moved.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YUuYtHnUnO8/UKplNZ_liWI/AAAAAAAABRI/XTO08ZU8aAg/s320/Bungy+Notes+moved.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />If you are stopping by, I thought I would state the obvious: I've kind of moved away from this blog.&nbsp; It happens.&nbsp; I was always a bit of an indifferent blogger.&nbsp; My posts skewed to the TL;DR.&nbsp; And while I always tried to include plenty of eye-candy, I don't think I ever really landed on what this blog was supposed to be about.<br /><br />But fear not, those of you who loved the art or my occasional attempts at wit.&nbsp; I have been quite active on Tumblr.&nbsp; You'll find my pics and GIFs and cartoons and occasionally some commentary there.&nbsp; And thanks to the conventions of Tumblr, my posts are short.&nbsp; Usually.&nbsp; And also way more regular.&nbsp; <br /><br />Anyway, come find me at <a href="http://bungy32.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Bungy Tumblr</a>.&nbsp; <br /><br /><br />Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-28855790339374475002012-02-13T16:16:00.000-08:002012-02-13T16:16:44.906-08:00On Media, New and "Old"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7167/6613792741_976b3976d6_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7167/6613792741_976b3976d6_z.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">I made this as a part of a the "United By Edit" logo competition on Instagram.&nbsp; No photos were used (or harmed) in the making of this image.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Ever feel like you are a social movement of one?&nbsp; I know the feeling.&nbsp; And of course, the irony of those two sentences is that they contradict: If there's two of us, we are no longer alone.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7020/6614043723_83abcd9603_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7020/6614043723_83abcd9603_z.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Click to enlarge to see a bit of my process in making this.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>Now that we've limbered up with a little verbal calisthenics, let me get to my point.&nbsp; I feel like I am waging a private war at times against the presuppositions of photography in&nbsp; online image sharing.&nbsp; The preponderence of sites (Twitpics, Flickr, Instagram, Picasa, etc.) default in their language to the idea of sharing photography, when a cursory glance through people's feeds suggests something more interesting is going on here.&nbsp; <br /><br />On Instagram, I participate in groups like #we_edit and #unitedbyedit, formed in part in response to photography groups who regularly criticize "too much honey" in a photo edit.&nbsp; But even in these groups, photography is not always the base.&nbsp; Plenty of folks are working with digital graphics apps and software that allow them to render from scratch or modify other captured content (preferrably open source or Creative Commons, but admittedly, not always).&nbsp; <br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7021/6615272807_6262cf91c8_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7021/6615272807_6262cf91c8_z.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Actually began as a photo, but made to look painted.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>Then too, many apps and software packages still predominantly identify their filters and effects by the ways they (roughly!) approximate darkroom procedures for retouching photographs.&nbsp; "Burn," "dodge," "vignette," "HDR," "Orton," and so forth have become common parlance in digital photo editing -- although the results are often quite different from their print photography analogues.<br /><br />Now don't get me wrong: I am not against digital photography or its imitations of its analogue ancestor.&nbsp; And I see the value, on paper or on screens, of the minimally edited photograph.&nbsp; But as we celebrate the ways tablet and smartphone technologoes are opening up people's creativity and generating "new" art movements (c.f. "iPhoneography"), I think it behooves us not to be too beholden to the familiar and to acknowledge the plethora of image creating possibilities these tools allow.<br /><br />I think the real inovation of these tools is less the camera (although that is part of it, but certainly also available on lower IQ phones) than the screen.&nbsp; The screen is increasingly how we frame our shots (as opposed to the analogue and early DSLR view finder).&nbsp; It is also where we edit and view most images (since only very few of us print out our pics, and then only very few those, relatively speaking).&nbsp; But it is also where we forgo the camera entirely to use stylus or finger to draw, paint, clip, and blend images.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7147/6642257961_5383d6bc5e_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7147/6642257961_5383d6bc5e_z.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So, there's a photo of a drawing in this one?</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>So what are the better terms?&nbsp; What is a little less beholden to the way things were, a little more responsive to extant practice, and a little more visionary for the future.&nbsp; Increasingly, I use "pic" (the online-savvy abreviation of "picture")&nbsp; or "image" when talking about the images I create and share.&nbsp; These may be photographs, may include photographic elements, or may never have involved a lens in the process at all.&nbsp; I also object to "edit" as the default term for image manipulation since it implies some photographic original that I am revising and reworking, some qualitative distinction between <i>making</i> an image and <i>revising</i> it.&nbsp; Instead of "edit," maybe we should call this work "pixel pushing."&nbsp; Leaving aside vector graphics for the moment, "pushing" seems to capture both the sense of moving and also the sense of transforming through filters the basic structure of the digital image: the pixel.&nbsp; "Pixel pushing" captures the idea of edit and of paint, and it frees us from the erroneous perception that we are engaged in anything really like darkroom editing.<br /><br />Maybe this is all just a matter of semantics.&nbsp; The "photo" in "Photoshop" hasn't stopped artists from using it even when they don't have a photograph to build on.&nbsp; More people use Instagram than those using digital "Instamatics" or their imitators.&nbsp; And every time someone complains about someone else's aesthetic or use of a tool, the offender tends to form communities as reaction formations to arbitrary rules.&nbsp; Making art is frequently about breaking rules and using tools in ways other than they were intended.&nbsp; No harm, no foul.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7032/6643348903_9f82f29a7d_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7032/6643348903_9f82f29a7d_z.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Click to enlarge some of the steps.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>Even so, now might be a time to lift up our heads and take a good look at what is going on.&nbsp; Something is changing in our capacity to make and circulate images.&nbsp; The camera in your phone that is also a phone that is also a powerful computer....is also a powerful digital arts studio.&nbsp; This combinatory morphing, this portability, and this digital ephemerality of the final work is creating truly <i>new</i> media, something that owes much to the predecessors we can name but something also significantly different.&nbsp; With or without the social movement of one or many, our practices are leading the way into fascinating territory.&nbsp; <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7169/6742821463_84a76ffd23_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7169/6742821463_84a76ffd23_z.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Your Heart of Hearts.&nbsp; Made with a digital brush made from a heart diagram.</span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Happy Valentines Day!</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-46898341613682222822012-02-04T20:25:00.001-08:002012-02-04T20:25:14.373-08:00Graveyard Theme and Variation<br /><br /><center><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/104222811497644378698/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5705502554311918226'><img src='https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5jI_5Jp94pU/Ty4EWBbYgpI/AAAAAAAABLU/DTzkpCWscsA/s288/0.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />Last week I posted about my recent discovery of the folks making and sharing horror-themed pictures on Instagram. That group is still on my mind, apparently haunting the corners of my daily practice. As an extension of my prescient remix culture theme, this past week @horrorclub posted a picture to be used in a "challenge" titled #bloodstained_challenge1. The gist of these challenges is that you copy the prompting picture and rework it. Many challenges simply post regular highlights of participants' contributions. Some, like this one, create a mechanism for picking a winner from all the entries. <br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/104222811497644378698/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5705502632736414114'><img src='https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-EytTXq8FFN0/Ty4EallPWaI/AAAAAAAABLc/Ov4dATddGDc/s288/1.jpg' border='0' width='200' height='200' align='left' style='margin:5px'></a><br />I would be lying if I claimed i was not interested in highlights and winning, but at least I try not to lead with that care. My primary interest is in the prompt and seeing how many different ways I can rework that opening picture. I also enjoy seeing what others do with it. But mostly, it's the combination of the assignment and the communal sharing that keeps me going. <br /><br />There is something revealing in that observation: see, I've always thought I was a much better student than an academic. There comes a point in graduate school where you have to move beyond assignments and homework, but not the work. You have to start designing your own prompts, your own research projects. I found that transition hard; I still struggle with it. I've tried to formalize giving myself prompts, asking myself questions as if I was both teacher and student. It doesn't really work so well. <br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/104222811497644378698/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5705502669560090658'><img src='https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-T1oC_T5oTrA/Ty4EcuwsECI/AAAAAAAABLk/1yv-7WtqZyk/s288/2.jpg' border='0' width='200' height='200' align='right' style='margin:5px'></a><br />I'm not sure exactly what I get from an assignment prompt that I can't provide for myself. Alibi, maybe? In the case of these horror edits, I feel like both the sponsor and the group of folks contributing to the feed licenses some pretty dark stuff. If I were just doing this on my own, you might think I needed psychiatric help. Well, you probably still do. But in my head, my imagined you is less judgmental because I am not doing this alone. No, instead I've joined a creepy zombie cult of goth kids and misfits. So much better.<br /><br />It is better, because those goth kids and misfits have got my back. We sneer at all of you squares and dweebs who "just don't get it." Again, not really. This is a psychological alibi. These are my hipster, imagined artist friends who hang out smoking id cigarettes by the dumpsters in back of the consciousness cafeteria. <br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/104222811497644378698/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5705502733110635074'><img src='https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3R8PQnaiVOo/Ty4EgbgUakI/AAAAAAAABLs/BRcsH_e08o8/s288/3.jpg' border='0' width='200' height='200' align='left' style='margin:5px'></a><br />Dark fantasies all around. <br /><br />But so, horror is a comfort for me. I retreat to it, not for its violence and gore, but for its familiar formulas and the constant play of convention and invention in any genre. I love its playful yet sinister dare: go ahead, disbelieve this "hokum" -- you know what happens to the disbelievers. Again, not in real life -- well, <i>usually</i> not in real life. That's the tension of possibility right there. That's the dance of "you're being silly and superstitious" with "maybe there really are monsters, this time."<br /><br />Okay, while I'm on the confession train, here's another fact about me: I love graveyards. I love going to them at all hours of the day and night, including midnight and after. They are, to me, more peaceful and spiritual than churches or mountaintops. They are spaces to confront possibility, to walk the knife's edge between what is and what might be, to feel the tug of superstition and the supernatural at the edges of a mind struggling always to be rational. They are sites of honoring the departed, remembering that they matter, and confronting how little they actually stay with us. They are places to witness others' attempts to remember and honor the departed, to see that as a performance in regular need of refreshment. Wherever I have lived, I have always known where the nearest graveyard is and visit it regularly.<br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/104222811497644378698/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5705502814713242690'><img src='https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-TesO6-PF61E/Ty4ElLf5ZEI/AAAAAAAABL0/fQTiPYrAUqA/s288/4.jpg' border='0' width='200' height='200' align='right' style='margin:5px'></a><br />Graveyards are a kind of prompt, a kind of invitation. We go there to work our magic, to imagine so many possibilities, both dark and comforting. A faded epitaph is its own kind of writing assignment, waiting to be fleshed out. Fresh and withered flowers and wreaths are the tokens of others' offerings to the cemetery seminar. And each shadow is a theater where fantasy performs, sometimes sinister and sometimes serene. <br /><br />You might worry about the darkness in my soul, but I promise it is balanced by light. My recent picture manipulations are more signs of joy than despair. These are the formulae, the incantations of possibility and a deep belief that myth matters. These monsters that go in and out of fashion never go away. Like prayers or angels, they remind us that there is something more all while teasing us that to think so is silly. Or is it?<br /><br />And so we whistle, breath and melody, its own kind of prayer, walking a little more quickly or a little more slowly past sites of so much possibility.<br /><br /><center><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/104222811497644378698/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5705502887977710178'><img src='https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-5Rfb80puX9o/Ty4EpcbgcmI/AAAAAAAABL8/UbGfpaUl0mc/s288/6.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-31614925437185951052012-01-27T09:28:00.000-08:002012-01-27T09:28:23.697-08:00Of Monsters, Copyright, and Control<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6Kt_0knPHe4/TyLNRkvpUpI/AAAAAAAABJ0/seoeaBNcaZs/s1600/Photo+Jan+22,+11+16+28+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6Kt_0knPHe4/TyLNRkvpUpI/AAAAAAAABJ0/seoeaBNcaZs/s200/Photo+Jan+22,+11+16+28+PM.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Even as the semester gets off to a more hectic than usual start, I still find time to maintain a presence on Instagram.&nbsp; The iPad has truly become my portable electronic "sketchbook," with photo editing and pixel pushing replacing my usual pen on paper practice.&nbsp; Mourn that if you want, but I embrace anything that keeps my creative brain engaged and active...<i>alive!</i>&nbsp; <br /><br />Lately, I've found the horror fans on IG who like to edit with a darker sensibility (see especially the hashtags #appnormal and #horrorclub on IG).&nbsp; I have a long-standing interest in horror as literary, theatrical and cinematic genre.&nbsp; There is something enticing to me about a surreal aesthetic as visceral as it is playful, the gut-pull of gore and gross.&nbsp; I subscribe to the notion that it is better to work these dark fantasies out on the page and stage, in words and images, than it is to do so on ourselves and each other.&nbsp; Let us let off the fetid steam of our shadow-selves in art rather than actual violence.&nbsp; Let us contemplate mortality as much with dark fantasy as with bright myths of redemption; let us not imagine these are mutually exclusive possibilities.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QIVsbeI3NTg/TyLNeMuihkI/AAAAAAAABJ8/mfniNHeeDDQ/s1600/Photo+Jan+22,+6+10+44+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QIVsbeI3NTg/TyLNeMuihkI/AAAAAAAABJ8/mfniNHeeDDQ/s200/Photo+Jan+22,+6+10+44+PM.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>But there is something nibbling at my soul with my recent practice that yearns for some explanation as well as illustration.&nbsp; Lately, I have been reworking a lot of images found at the open-source vintage photo archive, <a href="http://www.indicommons.org/">IndiCommons</a>.&nbsp; These images are in the public domain; they are expressly (though not primarily) made available for the aesthetic and ethic of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remix_culture">Remix Culture</a>. What I do here with these images is not illegal, in the strictest sense.<br /><br />But is it defensible on other levels?&nbsp; What does it mean to take the images of real people I have never known (but who are likely meaningful to their surviving descendents) and rework their visages in a grotesque aesthetic.&nbsp; Is this a kind of "piracy," a visual violence and semiotic transgression that so much copyright or defamation legislation is meant to prevent?&nbsp; How would I like it if my image were similarly distressed and presented as the proud accomplishment of someone else's twisted imagination?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3cd3lq_2sfI/TyLNldP7SdI/AAAAAAAABKE/goW2lR2uKpA/s1600/Photo+Jan+25,+12+05+30+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3cd3lq_2sfI/TyLNldP7SdI/AAAAAAAABKE/goW2lR2uKpA/s200/Photo+Jan+25,+12+05+30+AM.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Let me answer that last question first: I welcome it!&nbsp; I would be flattered.&nbsp; And even if I were disturbed by the tenor of the edit (say, mocking my sexuality with homophobic stereotypes), I still welcome that impulse played out with pixels rather than, say, a tire iron in a back alley.&nbsp; (<i>Caveat:</i>&nbsp; Here I would, however,&nbsp; mark a murky but important distinction between disturbing imagery and <a href="http://www.worldlawdirect.com/article/550/rights-liabilities-involving-online-speech.html">visual defamation </a>targeted at an individual or minority group.)&nbsp; But I don't simply say this as evidence of a cavalier attitude about my own image or some narcissistic notion that any publicity is good publicity. I remind myself that, despite our best proprietary efforts, we always have so little control over what is done with our images, our words, and what we think they mean when we release them into the chaos of our shared interactions with others.&nbsp; Anything that reminds us of that fundamental truth in a regular, deep-knowing way is important.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hUnE69sPKk4/TyLN92nGadI/AAAAAAAABKU/lkWd47fIF1c/s1600/Photo+Jan+24,+8+09+43+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hUnE69sPKk4/TyLN92nGadI/AAAAAAAABKU/lkWd47fIF1c/s200/Photo+Jan+24,+8+09+43+AM.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />This practice of using what we find, to me, is a central tenet of Remix Culture.&nbsp; This practice is not necessarily a form of piracy or visual defamation; rather, it is the way human creativity has always worked.&nbsp; The notion of authorship and artistic ownership is a relatively recent invention of humanity.&nbsp; No, I am not advocating that one simply take someone else's work and slap one's name on it and claim (and therefor profit from) it as one's own.&nbsp; However, reworking an idea or even the work of someone else into something new is what we do, have always done, as a species with a highly developed sense of social organization.&nbsp; Call it memes, call it culture! We not only create, we recreate -- we recycle the dead, sometimes before they are even dead.&nbsp; <br /><br />If you are disturbed by these images not so much because of the tropes of the horror genre but because of the sources they are built from, take a lesson from the strangeness you feel.&nbsp; Think about the images you have put out there on the Web -- images of your children, your loved ones, your vacations, your home, yourself.&nbsp; Know that in sharing them you have released them to the myriad practices of humanity; know that you have no control over how others are not only viewing them, but using them.&nbsp; In some dark dungeon, some monster may be drooling over your image, seeking ghastly and uspeakable pleasures in ways you don't want to think about.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-av2OzpnSIH4/TyLNx2QfyJI/AAAAAAAABKM/6vkFGxxj24c/s1600/Photo+Jan+27%252C+8+40+14+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-av2OzpnSIH4/TyLNx2QfyJI/AAAAAAAABKM/6vkFGxxj24c/s200/Photo+Jan+27%252C+8+40+14+AM.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>So.&nbsp; Stop posting?&nbsp; Stop sharing?&nbsp; Try to figure out ways to lock your works up so they can only be viewed and used the way you intended?&nbsp; Yeah, good luck with that.&nbsp; Do so, and you may very well limit your ability to share or even view in the ways you have become accustomed -- you may well find yourself endorsing draconian and ill-conceived legislation like<a href="http://gizmodo.com/5877000/what-is-sopa"> SOPA and PIPA</a>.&nbsp; And the thing is, even if you do so, the monsters will still be out there, lurking -- feeding their (our?) dark desires in so many other ways. <br /><br />Rather, let go.&nbsp; Don't stop worrying about the monsters, necessarily, but be more vigilante about them when they actually come out of their dungeons, when they threaten real damage to you and/or your loved ones.&nbsp; For sure, try not to give them your address!&nbsp; Share online only that which you would share in a public space.&nbsp; Don't be seduced by illusions and false assurances of control.&nbsp; Stop worrying about what others do with images, with words, that stopped being "yours" (if they ever truly were) the moment they were released into the public.&nbsp; In your efforts to protect yourself, don't confuse the monsters with the artists...and try always to be the latter.<br /><br />As for the laws regarding rights (copy- or otherwise), respect them or suffer the consequences.&nbsp; This is always the case, even with stupid laws.&nbsp; But fight the stupid ones.&nbsp; For they, too, create monsters.&nbsp; <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h49cQ91arYE/TyLORbeixiI/AAAAAAAABKc/ixX1K5c2Tsc/s1600/Photo+Jan+24,+8+42+15+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h49cQ91arYE/TyLORbeixiI/AAAAAAAABKc/ixX1K5c2Tsc/s320/Photo+Jan+24,+8+42+15+PM.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-51650799190750877812012-01-19T20:29:00.000-08:002012-01-19T20:38:25.451-08:00Variations on a Starbucks Coffee Cup<br /><br /><center><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/104222811497644378698/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5699568779247879154'><img src='https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-fOveFhvnc9E/Txjvm2v6A_I/AAAAAAAABI8/kQC-LAL7qe0/s288/1.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />I've been playing around on Instagram, where a new friend (@ashcroft54 who blogs at http://ashcroft54.com) posted a picture of a Starbuck's coffee cup and invited edits of the image. We call these invitations "challenges" or sometimes "pimps." It's a social media game that has been nourishing my soul lately. Here are a few of my edits:<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/104222811497644378698/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5699568817852427858'><img src='https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-AbNZWROcWLI/TxjvpGj8rlI/AAAAAAAABJE/wMOdinPPWkU/s288/3.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' align='left' style='margin:5px'></a><br />My first inclination was to transform the logo into something else. The first thing that came to mind was the biohazard symbol. Don't know why, exactly. I like coffee. But it sometimes seems like a "toxic brew" to me. What followed? Well, something mutant-like, of course. Tentacles made sense. And from there, it only seemed right to tweak the visual style toward comicbook. <br /><br /><br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/104222811497644378698/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5699568844786510498'><img src='https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-dl5vci8aZj4/Txjvqq5iKqI/AAAAAAAABJM/o-ttKTuJ_9g/s288/4.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' align='right' style='margin:5px'></a><br />The next day, I was still captivated with the idea of tweaking the logo and seeing where that took me. I also felt the need for a visual pun. I grabbed an open source image of Kara Thrace (a.k.a. "Starbuck") from <i>Battlestar Galactica</i>. I then tweaked it into a few shades of green and a coffee-chain-esque art nouveau style. A few Cylon light-effects later and I had my take on a Starbuck Starbucks. So say we all!<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/104222811497644378698/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5699568876486974578'><img src='https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-XtkhLHIoGJE/Txjvsg_g3HI/AAAAAAAABJU/MzBtbkZeuWw/s288/5.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' align='left' style='margin:5px'></a><br />Next day and I felt the need to keep the logo but lose the cup. I spent a lot of time isolating the logo and looking at it. Finally, the idea of plankton came to me, and I knew I had an idea worth playing with. It was also fun adding some different colors and offset depth to the flat green Starbucks logo. <br /><br /><br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/104222811497644378698/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5699568907323315938'><img src='https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-SJnMZiGddCU/TxjvuT3eFuI/AAAAAAAABJc/tqdtq2KSsqc/s288/6.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' align='right' style='margin:5px'></a><br />Today, I started an edit based on removing the cup entirely and working with the grid pattern on the table top. Once I had the empty plane, I was at a loss for what to put on it. Then I happened to turn the logo upside down, and I saw the pig face in it. The rest was simply a matter of pulling that image out and giving the overall composition some engaging texture.<br /><br />I am finding as the semester winds up that digital graphics are a way to relax and get out of my school brain. I'm loving the edit communities on Instagram. It took a while to find them, but now I am addicted -- which may or may not be a metaphor. But I love the touch screen as a tool and toy for seeing and re-seeing with my fingers. And in the end, they take me to magical places where creepy is most definitely cool. <br /><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/104222811497644378698/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5699568940431173170'><img src='https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-izHwKZ-30eI/TxjvwPM_5jI/AAAAAAAABJk/gU5yEQWdb9k/s288/7.jpg' border='0' width='400' height='400' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-5624966087436245722012-01-02T10:48:00.000-08:002012-01-02T10:48:04.793-08:00New Year, New Possibilities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bdM7BSqOjiQ/TwH4rlhwmPI/AAAAAAAABHo/bG5vgMaQZNs/s1600/Photo+Dec+27%252C+2+40+49+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bdM7BSqOjiQ/TwH4rlhwmPI/AAAAAAAABHo/bG5vgMaQZNs/s200/Photo+Dec+27%252C+2+40+49+PM.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>No question, 2011 was a bear of a year!&nbsp; It was a year of overcommitment for me, and I let too many things fall by the wayside as I struggled and failed to meet too many of those commitments.&nbsp; It was a year of loss, a year of struggle.&nbsp; It had its high points, and they were great. But it had its deep, deep lows -- as much in the broad strokes as in the specific moments.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1dBDWszmRXg/TwH5AwR_KPI/AAAAAAAABH0/YTou8nn-r80/s1600/Photo+Dec+29%252C+11+38+43+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1dBDWszmRXg/TwH5AwR_KPI/AAAAAAAABH0/YTou8nn-r80/s200/Photo+Dec+29%252C+11+38+43+PM.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>The year began with forcing my mother to deal with deteriorating mental capacity that required putting her, against her will, into a home.&nbsp; It was soon followed by the sudden death of a close and young colleague, who went from diagnosis to death from cancer in under a month.&nbsp; My old friend, writers block, returned with its usual neurotic and hard-to-explain-to-others inability to write in certain contexts.&nbsp; It brought an unwanted friend, an excruciating difficulty with responding to students' writing that made me not very good at my job. It was the year I had to go on strike to protect that job, and in the process engaged in a polarizing social drama on my campus.&nbsp; And it was a year where economic downturn served as the cover for retrograde policy on all the things that matter most to me and should matter most to all of us.&nbsp; <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zj_I6X4hRTQ/TwH5L1C6TVI/AAAAAAAABIA/xnEnZ4Oc3Sc/s1600/Photo+Dec+26%252C+2+14+15+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zj_I6X4hRTQ/TwH5L1C6TVI/AAAAAAAABIA/xnEnZ4Oc3Sc/s200/Photo+Dec+26%252C+2+14+15+PM.jpg" width="199" /></a></div>But pain and frustration were not the only qualities of this year.&nbsp; After all, it began with an engaging and successful social media art project that earned me a few lines in an <i>ARTNews</i> article this summer.&nbsp; It was the year I had a regular comic strip for a few months until the collaborative blog died a mysterious death.&nbsp; It was the year I used my cartooning and other talents to great effect for that strike effort.&nbsp; It was the year I figured out <i>Instagram</i> and found an amazing online community of similarly-minded net artists.&nbsp; It was the year I published an art comic in a literary journal.&nbsp; It was a great year for travel and performance: Maine, New Mexico, North Carolina, Louisiana, Alaska.&nbsp; It was the year my mother got a little better and managed to move herself into an assisted living community more to her liking.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hj02QSrIO1Q/TwH5d6abXVI/AAAAAAAABIM/Z7fZk1KgFT4/s1600/Photo+Dec+24%252C+11+22+35+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hj02QSrIO1Q/TwH5d6abXVI/AAAAAAAABIM/Z7fZk1KgFT4/s200/Photo+Dec+24%252C+11+22+35+AM.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>I came into the holiday break flying on fumes, exhausted by the good and the bad of it all.&nbsp; I made a minimal effort at holiday celebrations with the ones I love most.&nbsp; Mostly, I hid in the bed covers, watched movies, and made art for my Instagram feed (the images in this post are a result of that holiday "labor").&nbsp; I avoided leaving the house and going onto Facebook.&nbsp; I told myself this was all necessary, that I needed the time off, the serious down-time.&nbsp; I told myself it can't be all bad if I'm making art, right?&nbsp;<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vPvpeW9xp3Q/TwH5njF30NI/AAAAAAAABIY/DmGRYHAMeJQ/s1600/Photo+Dec+28%252C+8+31+28+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vPvpeW9xp3Q/TwH5njF30NI/AAAAAAAABIY/DmGRYHAMeJQ/s200/Photo+Dec+28%252C+8+31+28+PM.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>The New Year is here, and I hope it will be better than the last.&nbsp; I have a sabbatical coming (hopefully) in the second half of it.&nbsp; I have arts projects (performance, comics, digital graphics, etc.) planned that I think will be fulfilling.&nbsp; I get to teach a graduate seminar this spring that I am very excited about.&nbsp; And at the end of the year looms the next great global fantasy of the end of the world -- or its great awakening into new consciousness.&nbsp; <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bskY6vjkPqo/TwH530_a2_I/AAAAAAAABIk/Q9TBFECxv_U/s1600/Photo+Dec+30%252C+11+10+45+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bskY6vjkPqo/TwH530_a2_I/AAAAAAAABIk/Q9TBFECxv_U/s200/Photo+Dec+30%252C+11+10+45+PM.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>I write this today on my lunch break in my office at school.&nbsp; I am digging in to try to catch-up and get over the the damage done last semester and last year.&nbsp; But I pause to breathe, to resuscitate this blog, to make it my companion again for what I think, I hope will be a truly good year. &nbsp; We are, all of us, damaged a bit by this world.&nbsp; We are all of us making the best of it.&nbsp; I remind myself that, while my end-of-year time of rest was needed and welcome, little else is achieved from isolation.&nbsp; If 2012 is going to be a good year, we are going to have to make it so together.&nbsp; So, I am back, rolling up my sleeves, ready to get to work.&nbsp;<br /><br />Call this the art of living.<br /><br />Consider that an oblique yet hopeful resolution.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-edlhYoOY840/TwH6C_SA4BI/AAAAAAAABIw/pjSNEwpthVY/s1600/Photo+Dec+31%252C+12+12+17+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-edlhYoOY840/TwH6C_SA4BI/AAAAAAAABIw/pjSNEwpthVY/s320/Photo+Dec+31%252C+12+12+17+PM.jpg" width="319" /></a></div>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-9064548901606534082011-10-22T21:03:00.000-07:002011-10-22T21:03:01.353-07:00Been a WhileThere's a total meltdown at school.&nbsp; We're days away from a potential strike.&nbsp; And yet somewhere in there I find the time not only to do the usual semester overload of work but to enjoy a little art exchange on Instagram.&nbsp; Enjoy a few pics from my exchanges there.&nbsp; And maybe I'll find a way to get back to Bungy Notin' too.<br /><br />From my Instagram feed (these are all made with applications on my iPad):<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qNkQhff-6wU/TqOQcn8gpiI/AAAAAAAABDw/fO-Fdcu7HxM/s1600/IMG_1654.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qNkQhff-6wU/TqOQcn8gpiI/AAAAAAAABDw/fO-Fdcu7HxM/s320/IMG_1654.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l6fMPbQwScs/TqOQjS9ZnNI/AAAAAAAABD4/BRNXb6HVR88/s1600/IMG_1668.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l6fMPbQwScs/TqOQjS9ZnNI/AAAAAAAABD4/BRNXb6HVR88/s320/IMG_1668.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KrGy2e-gzmE/TqOQr6zpD1I/AAAAAAAABEA/KxMztnkzk2o/s1600/IMG_1645.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KrGy2e-gzmE/TqOQr6zpD1I/AAAAAAAABEA/KxMztnkzk2o/s320/IMG_1645.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />And if you are interested in the labor conflicts at SIUC, I'm blogging now over at<a href="http://siucfaculty.blogspot.com/"><b><i> Deo Volente</i></b></a>.&nbsp; "God willing," I am finding appropriate and useful applications of my digital skills there, as well.Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-67532667926475406192011-07-25T00:26:00.000-07:002011-07-25T00:26:15.337-07:00Things are Cookin' in Fairbanks<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pd70_gYkmLg/Ti0XoSSf5-I/AAAAAAAABDY/MhmZuUgS4-I/s1600/Photo+Jul+20%252C+10+55+42+AM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pd70_gYkmLg/Ti0XoSSf5-I/AAAAAAAABDY/MhmZuUgS4-I/s320/Photo+Jul+20%252C+10+55+42+AM.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>The Summer Arts Festival is half over and even though we've only been at it a week, I feel like I've done enough work for several months.&nbsp; I'm not burning-out yet; this exhaustion is a good feeling.&nbsp; It is truly a saturation experience.&nbsp; We're talking about and doing work with poetry, fiction, and essays.&nbsp; We are also working on a handmade book compilation of some of our shorter pieces.&nbsp; And somehwere in there, I fit in with some performative, embodied considerations for art and writing.&nbsp; We burn our candle at both ends, it will not last the night -- which suggests an even faster rate of combustion, considering how relatively nonexistent the nights are up here this time of year.<br /><br />Let's imagine for a moment that the students (er, "registrants") aren't exhausted and over stimulated; let's posit that we are helping draw connections between this mixed bag of offerings.&nbsp; We are in the thick of it all with one week to go.&nbsp; For sure, anxieties are high.&nbsp; "Surely, my writing would be further along," some posit, "if not for this book project."&nbsp; Others choose not to engage embodiment and performance.&nbsp; Most of the folks here are participating for their own "enrichment;" who can really argue with their choices not to engage in certain dishes at the buffet?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-djn5FjZUrb8/Ti0Yj-C_cSI/AAAAAAAABDc/2aYGPD5BYV4/s1600/Photo+Jul+20%252C+10+55+49+AM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-djn5FjZUrb8/Ti0Yj-C_cSI/AAAAAAAABDc/2aYGPD5BYV4/s320/Photo+Jul+20%252C+10+55+49+AM.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>But for those who are?&nbsp; I think there is a rich synergy that is happening across our various activities.&nbsp; How often do writers think about composition not as wordcraft but as the aesthetic placement of "objects" on a page?&nbsp; Turns out the good ones think about that a lot.&nbsp; Certainly the book making process encourages them to embrace the materiality of reading and writing as well as acknowledge both (a) the layered process of production and (b) the need to commit and commit quickly to decisions in a collaborative project ("first thought, best thought," I tell them).<br /><br />I also tell these folks a little about my process.&nbsp; How I work an idea in multiple media at the same time.&nbsp; Try writing about it.&nbsp; Try drawing it out.&nbsp; Collage some photographs.&nbsp; Improvise a monologue.&nbsp; Find a gesture.&nbsp; At some point, the idea settles into what it wants to be: a performance, a poem, a painting -- sometimes all three, sometimes all at once.&nbsp; But always the different ways of approaching the idea influence each other -- call this a kind of "lateral thinking."<br /><br />I know, for some this approach is profoundly uncomfortable.&nbsp; What does waxing a car really have to do with karate, Mr. Miyagi?&nbsp; But when you relax into it, when you trust the process, you discover that pretty much everything plays a role in creative expression, whatever the medium.&nbsp; Even a walk in the woods is part of the writing process (in my experience, often the most important part).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZROrmmt0Ue8/Ti0Y0eJN5cI/AAAAAAAABDg/jKXigARuykg/s1600/Photo+Jul+23%252C+5+10+24+PM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZROrmmt0Ue8/Ti0Y0eJN5cI/AAAAAAAABDg/jKXigARuykg/s320/Photo+Jul+23%252C+5+10+24+PM.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>Of course, so much creative energy can ignite a fire...and sometimes that is not so good in the woods.&nbsp; Metaphors have these tricky ways of becoming material.&nbsp; This weekend there has been a large wildfire blazing in the woods south of Fairbanks.&nbsp; I know our creative sparks didn't light it.&nbsp; But that tang in the air is a reminder about what happens to energy released on fertile ground, where tender awaits to ignite.<br /><br />I think our students are lighting a different kind of fire...if they can just get over their fear of matches.&nbsp; And their belief that rigid categorical distinctions will keep them warm, <i><b>or </b></i>keep them from getting burned.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5wz5JAqXdrc/Ti0Y_xBPPrI/AAAAAAAABDk/2n9FCC-32kg/s1600/Photo+Jul+23%252C+5+12+13+PM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5wz5JAqXdrc/Ti0Y_xBPPrI/AAAAAAAABDk/2n9FCC-32kg/s320/Photo+Jul+23%252C+5+12+13+PM.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-28342030628921440472011-07-17T23:12:00.000-07:002011-07-17T23:12:58.557-07:00At the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-APp3nFGwKqA/TiPMf7XXW8I/AAAAAAAABCw/AjVkAphSrYM/s1600/Photo+Jul+17%252C+2+13+06+PM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-APp3nFGwKqA/TiPMf7XXW8I/AAAAAAAABCw/AjVkAphSrYM/s320/Photo+Jul+17%252C+2+13+06+PM.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JGhenVHeIN4/TiPLxUiC3VI/AAAAAAAABCo/WJObXPT1-jI/s1600/Photo+Jul+17%252C+3+08+42+PM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JGhenVHeIN4/TiPLxUiC3VI/AAAAAAAABCo/WJObXPT1-jI/s200/Photo+Jul+17%252C+3+08+42+PM.jpeg" width="150" /></a></div>I found my way to Alaska again.&nbsp; This time I am working with the <a href="http://www.fsaf.org/artists.php?department=24">creative writing faculty</a> for the <a href="http://www.fsaf.org/">Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival</a>.&nbsp; Curious turn of events (networking and chance) how I ended up with this gig: it turns out writers (some of 'em, anyway) are interested in more than writing.&nbsp; I am interested in the embodied nature of writing, in trying to understand it not only as a cerebral craft but as something that involves our entire being.<br /><br />So, that makes me the exercise and "invention" guy.&nbsp; I'm the one (but not the only one) who will get participants out of their chairs and moving about and then reflecting on movement as something that also happens on a page.&nbsp;<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-riXekZk0dKg/TiPMHYEEcsI/AAAAAAAABCs/M5RPiu62tgI/s1600/Photo+Jul+17%252C+3+36+02+PM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-riXekZk0dKg/TiPMHYEEcsI/AAAAAAAABCs/M5RPiu62tgI/s200/Photo+Jul+17%252C+3+36+02+PM.jpeg" width="150" /></a></div>Sitting in the auditorium at the openning kick-off of the festival, I am struck by the richness of the arts in this far north little town.&nbsp; The breadth of programs in this 30 year-old festival includes lots of music (classical, jazz, world, celtic, opera, etc), a little drama, visual arts (painting and photography), healing arts, some dance, some film, and creative writing.&nbsp; But I also struggle a bit with identity "crisis" -- where do I fit in this mix?&nbsp; I, a cartoonist, solo-performer, poet, blogger, social media artist, seem to ride the cusp and cracks of so many of these "fine" arts.<br /><br />And so I land in the creative writing program, but this is unlike many creative writing programs.&nbsp; Here we not only practice poetry and essays in writing circles, we also make handmade books and (thanks to me) explore stage pictures and dynamic movement and improvisational sound production.&nbsp; And I'm pretty sure the participants are eager for the opportunity.&nbsp; Here, on the frontier, there circulates a rich community of folks eager to create and to combine, to explore in new ways, to abandon rules and conventions, and to set out into new and uncharted territories.&nbsp; God love 'em!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QRG9VK-u48I/TiPM2UZYONI/AAAAAAAABC0/FB5i3hHr4A8/s1600/Photo+Jul+17%252C+4+00+58+PM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QRG9VK-u48I/TiPM2UZYONI/AAAAAAAABC0/FB5i3hHr4A8/s200/Photo+Jul+17%252C+4+00+58+PM.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>But so, how will it go?&nbsp; Well, time permitting, I'll check in with my perspective.&nbsp; But if you are curious, you might follow one of our "students" (an accomplished science fiction novelist) at <a href="http://homecomingbook.wordpress.com/">her blog</a> where she will be (I believe) filing daily reports of what she learns with us.&nbsp; I hope we don't let her down; I'd hate to become the model for a vile alien parasite in a future novel.&nbsp; A writer's revenge is never something to be taken lightly!Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-41820822208630268592011-07-13T20:00:00.001-07:002011-07-13T20:00:14.076-07:00Self-Pic and Primates<br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/jmgray32/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5629037421935266258'><img src='http://lh6.ggpht.com/-TIHJUbZgssY/Th5bthnVCdI/AAAAAAAABCg/7DspAK2Dj94/s288/2.jpg' border='0' width='199' height='281' align='left' style='margin:5px'></a><br />So, I've been fascinated for the last week or so by <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2011051/Black-macaque-takes-self-portrait-Monkey-borrows-photographers-camera.html">this picture</a>. It's a self-portrait. The macaque took this smiling picture <i>of herself</i>. Sure, one could use this to start a conversation about authorship of a photograph, as <a target="_blank" href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110706/00200314983/monkey-business-can-monkey-license-its-copyrights-to-news-agency.shtml">some have</a>.<br /><br />What engages me, though, is the expression. The practice. The photo fits so many of the genre formulas of the self-pic. That this monkey can reproduce recognizable codes without apparent access to knowledge of and intent to produce a photograph matters little (to me, anyway). This is what we do with cameras (or stinky whir boxes that flash and go <font color="red" face="Marker Felt">click</font>). I prefer those pictures where we forget we're making pictures, anyway.<br /><br />So here I look into the eyes of a non-human Other and see something recognizable. Rather than being freaked out by the "uncanny" (as if the macaque is a strangely animated <i>thing</i>), I see joy and wonder. And a big toothy smile.<br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/jmgray32/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5629037446135817330'><img src='http://lh6.ggpht.com/-hRqfdqtLFHg/Th5bu7xMJHI/AAAAAAAABCk/9WOPvmLPZz0/s288/1.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='149' align='right' style='margin:5px'></a><br />When we aren't treating our primate cousins as nuisances or exotic entertainment, we amuse ourselves with stories of their <a target="_blank" href="http://screenrant.com/rise-planet-apes-interviews-rupert-wyatt-sandy-111002/">vengeful rise to power</a>. How much nicer it is to look into the eyes of the Other and encounter both similarity and alterity. If our guilt (so few species have really benefitted from associating with us) leads us to fear, that is at least understandable. But I think regret is better than fear -- regret for the missed opportunities. What vacations, parties, rituals, or adventures might we have shared, with or without the camera? <br /><br />In this case, it's all about what makes you smile.<br /><br /><br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br />Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-6628638980019181032011-07-13T06:57:00.000-07:002011-07-13T06:57:06.631-07:00A Resurrection with Toons<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ve_vZ2_-XQM/TB0FMqohx5I/AAAAAAAAAj8/i07GY61p0NU/s1600/Vacation09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ve_vZ2_-XQM/TB0FMqohx5I/AAAAAAAAAj8/i07GY61p0NU/s320/Vacation09.jpg" width="233" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Page from "Vacation on the Moon"</span></td></tr></tbody></table>A little over a year after I made it, "Vacation on the Moon" appears this week in print in <i><a href="http://www.palookajournal.com/grayvacation.htm">Palooka 2</a></i>. &nbsp;That's actually amazing turnaround. &nbsp;For a short abstract(ish) comic I made in the wake of a visit home, more therapy than an honest attempt to make art anyone would want to publish, that work has gone farther than I dreamed possible. &nbsp;But then, I guess our best work comes from dark places and serves other purposes than "just making" something.<br /><br />The "therapy" part worries me, though. &nbsp;I've spent much of my career cautioning folks about engaging in therapy publicly. &nbsp;Beware, I tell the neophyte public speaker, of going places with an audience you are not ready to go -- they are not paid to listen and be kind. &nbsp;To the experienced performer recently&nbsp;enamored&nbsp;of confessional narrative and the chance to air personal pain, I remind: there has to be something more to your story than just what concerns you; it needs to reach a broader audience and speak to some level of shared experience. &nbsp;Even if therapy is not a "scare word," we should at least remember that, for it to work, all parties involved should be aware they are entering a therapeutic context and consent to the "treatment" -- we record this wisdom with impressive concepts like "norm of reciprocity" and "expectancy violation." <br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o9ArVP750XI/ThxPaIanZmI/AAAAAAAAA7s/fWJyNoVbS68/s1600/IMAGE_1000000516.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o9ArVP750XI/ThxPaIanZmI/AAAAAAAAA7s/fWJyNoVbS68/s320/IMAGE_1000000516.JPG" width="243" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">"Light," a one page comic.</span></td></tr></tbody></table>So what of my little comic? &nbsp;I made it in the week after a summer visit to my parents with my partner. &nbsp;Those visits are always hard, all the harder for being such a cloyingly sweet concoction of pleasures and pains, memories and loss. &nbsp;Yet there was a new specter last summer, coiling in the shadows and conversational pauses. &nbsp;My mother seemed, well, different and not quite all there. &nbsp;And my father, separated from her for nearly twenty years but still a good friend, seemed to be disappearing into his own isolation and the consequences of limited human interaction. &nbsp;It was a visit about being (and trying not to be) horrified at what age is doing to my earliest loved ones; it was a visit about struggling to be present, to be visible <i>as I am</i> in the face of those with failing eyesight and faulty memory and too many preferences for who they <i>think </i>I am (or should be).<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Nf5gB2bgIdg/ThxPjoEfuRI/AAAAAAAAA74/kPnsoTz9EGs/s1600/IMAGE_1000000538.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Nf5gB2bgIdg/ThxPjoEfuRI/AAAAAAAAA74/kPnsoTz9EGs/s320/IMAGE_1000000538.JPG" width="247" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">"Crepuscular Avuncular," some recent digital art.</span></td></tr></tbody></table>Returning from that trip, I buried myself in ink and pages. &nbsp;Words came reluctantly, but images flowed. &nbsp;Inspired by <a href="http://abstractcomics.blogspot.com/">abstract comics</a> and <a href="http://poemicstrip.blogspot.com/">poemics</a>, I wanted a language that resisted narrative and certainty but could still be (productively?) about something. &nbsp;Mostly, though, I was flailing in a kind of despair, reluctant to get out of bed, uncertain about pretty much everything. &nbsp;So was born "Vacation on the Moon," &nbsp;and after a few pages it caught a kind of momentum that is hard to describe but beautiful to experience -- a "high" one could spend a lifetime chasing. &nbsp;It moved quickly from sketchbook to digital processing to finding a suitable publication venue. &nbsp;With the relatively quick news that it was accepted for publication, I felt something in me shift, perhaps waking, perhaps reminding me it had always been there. &nbsp;This is, in part, what art (visual, verbal, tactile, etc.) is for -- not just in the making, but also in the sharing.<br /><br />A little over a year later and those pages seem even more prescient. &nbsp;My mother is now diagnosed not with&nbsp;Alzheimer's&nbsp;but with vascular dementia. &nbsp;She now lives in an independent living facility with in-home care, though getting her there was no easy task. &nbsp;The dementia and its complications came on her with a vengeance in late fall, and the holiday season required a difficult family intervention. &nbsp;So much of the conversation in the family was retrospective sense-making, looking back for signs and wondering if we could or should have intervened sooner. &nbsp;I look back at "Vacation on the Moon" and see in it the pre-tremors of a major quake, full of harbingers and warnings. <br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-87ERnl6BFks/Th2gjxEaPcI/AAAAAAAABCc/eatk-JSM768/s1600/Klexmur-011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-87ERnl6BFks/Th2gjxEaPcI/AAAAAAAABCc/eatk-JSM768/s320/Klexmur-011.jpg" width="237" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">"Klexmur, Alien Reporter," a weekly comic originally <br />published at the now defunct <i>Black Magpie Theory</i>.</span></td></tr></tbody></table>I look in the back of <i>Palooka </i>at my cheeky bio and wonder who that guy is. &nbsp;It points readers to this blog if they want more. &nbsp;And yet, this blog hasn't really been a home for my musings and art for several months. &nbsp;I've been around. &nbsp;I've found <i><a href="http://bungy32.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a></i> and its preference for short-form ("micro") blogging and reblogging. &nbsp;I've participated on more than one collaborative blog -- I had a weekly comic strip on one (that is now shifting to <a href="http://www.mockpaperscissors.com/2011/07/05/klexmur-emerges-from-hiatus/">another</a>). &nbsp;I was the primary coordinator for a social media performance/art <a href="http://plateastweets.blogspot.com/2010/12/platea-project-viii-tree-blogging.html">event</a> that, ultimately, landed me in the pages of <i><a href="http://www.artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=3333">ARTnews</a></i> this summer. &nbsp;In other words, I've been keeping busy...just not here.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vJ5jDyaasE0/ThxPcXL5Y5I/AAAAAAAAA7w/FKhFzXDZFeY/s1600/IMAGE_1000000531.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vJ5jDyaasE0/ThxPcXL5Y5I/AAAAAAAAA7w/FKhFzXDZFeY/s320/IMAGE_1000000531.JPG" width="245" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Recent "Self Portrait"</span></td></tr></tbody></table>I think that is about to change. &nbsp;It is time to come back to this blog and let it be a home for art and contemplation. &nbsp;Maybe also to let it be, in some small and responsible way, a kind of therapy. &nbsp;But rest assured, I know that these confessions must reach a broader audience, speak to some sense of shared experiences. <br /><br />Let me know if they do.Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-63296163144945737722011-05-24T07:24:00.001-07:002011-05-24T07:24:39.659-07:00iPad Comics<br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/jmgray32/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5610288434930532834'><img src='http://lh3.ggpht.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/Tdu_m2OEQeI/AAAAAAAAA5E/6N_9BhvseBE/s288/0.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' align='left' style='margin:5px'></a><br />It happens. My work with an academic schedule inevitably reaches a point where I don't have the time or energy to do the sorts of things I would like to be doing. Then, finally, the semester ends, and I get my life back -- only getting back to those personal projects is as difficult as, well, getting a jump on the next semester.<br /><br />I've been recuperating with my newest gadget/tool/toy -- the iPad! As a relatively recent convert (about 4 years ago) to digital art and graphics pads, I was at least partially interested in the potential of touch screens for producing art, and more specifically, comics.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/jmgray32/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5610288446458899266'><img src='http://lh3.ggpht.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/Tdu_nhKpK0I/AAAAAAAAA5I/0qwkJ3gexvU/s288/1.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' align='right' style='margin:5px'></a><br />So, these pics are some initial doodling around with the Art Studio app. Nothing like a completed work yet, but I see the potential. And the drawbacks. I've purchased some premium apps, but none of them have the functionality or quality of my usual software tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, Manga Studio, ArtRage, etc.). Still, they aren't all that bad, either. And the iPad is definitely more portable.<br /><br />And in that spirit, I am also making this post via the iPad in hopes that blogging with this gadget is something else I can begin to do regularly. <br /><br /><br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/jmgray32/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5610288484700170770'><img src='http://lh6.ggpht.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/Tdu_pvoEqhI/AAAAAAAAA5M/nhhMSP4Mlkg/s288/2.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' align='left' style='margin:5px'></a><br />I've had my week of not showering and staying away from anything that seems too much like work. As I turn my attention to prepping a summer syllabus (and well, not), it also seems like time to get back to those things that matter to me...like this blog.<br /><br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br />Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-35217880902134451442011-05-14T16:02:00.000-07:002011-05-14T16:06:02.644-07:001000 Hours: He Is Still Not Alone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DY1-Y6BJIzM/Tc71IBsXvDI/AAAAAAAAA4w/kz-aW-2XwLE/s1600/AiWw-seeds-1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DY1-Y6BJIzM/Tc71IBsXvDI/AAAAAAAAA4w/kz-aW-2XwLE/s1600/AiWw-seeds-1.gif" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5TGMLo9HoBc/Tc71fu7wB1I/AAAAAAAAA40/mNOLLPNsqvc/s1600/AiWw-seeds-2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5TGMLo9HoBc/Tc71fu7wB1I/AAAAAAAAA40/mNOLLPNsqvc/s1600/AiWw-seeds-2.gif" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a4PXugJUUzg/Tc71z-b-EPI/AAAAAAAAA44/nk3FNfGcp18/s1600/AiWw-seeds-3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a4PXugJUUzg/Tc71z-b-EPI/AAAAAAAAA44/nk3FNfGcp18/s1600/AiWw-seeds-3.gif" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The above gifs are compilations of a "project" I've been participating in over the last month-plus.&nbsp; Around the world, folks are keeping vigil for the "detained" Chinese artist, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_Weiwei">Ai Weiwei</a>. They regularly post to the internet pictures of sunflower seeds, their number marking the hours since his disappearance.&nbsp; As of 10:04 a.m. this morning (Central Daylight Time in the US), it has been 1000 hours since Ai Weiwei was seized by police.&nbsp; To date, no official charges or explanation for his seizure have been provided by the authorities.&nbsp; Nor is he the only artist or outspoken citizen to be seized in China in the last few months.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KHwFCoC-j9M/Tam7vbeejzI/AAAAAAAAA4c/LiTCaZEB4k4/s1600/seed+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KHwFCoC-j9M/Tam7vbeejzI/AAAAAAAAA4c/LiTCaZEB4k4/s200/seed+1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">"Sunfower Seeds" (2010) Ai Weiwei</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;">The choice to use sunflower seeds to mark the hours is in reference to his recent installation at the Tate Modern in London, <a href="http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/635714717001"><i>Sunflower Seeds</i></a>.&nbsp; In that work, Weiwei covered the floor of a gallery with 100 million handmade porcelain sunflower seeds.&nbsp; Among other themes in the work, the installation represents a dialectic tension between the individual and the masses -- each seed individually crafted yet part of a massive carpet on the gallery floor.&nbsp;&nbsp; In other words, we are always simultaneously unique individuals and part of a collective; we draw our power from both.</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TmPJWERl3OY/TanCPUeqNnI/AAAAAAAAA4g/tqpAYFcXnvY/s1600/seed+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TmPJWERl3OY/TanCPUeqNnI/AAAAAAAAA4g/tqpAYFcXnvY/s200/seed+2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">"Sunflower Seeds" (2010) Ai Weiwei</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I first became aware of Ai Weiwei's work through <a href="http://plateastweets.blogspot.com/">@Platea</a>. (A few folks involved with that international social media art collective actually work with Ai Weiwei.)&nbsp; Weiwei also works with social media, sometimes as art and more often as activism (though, of course, usually as both).&nbsp; It is this combination of social justice, social media, and artistic practice that attracts me to his work.&nbsp; His plight reminds me of the importance of freedom of speech and the need for a citizenry to be able to hold its government accountable.&nbsp; Perhaps wrongly, too many of us hoped that Ai Weiwei's international celebrity would protect him from abuse at the hands of his government.&nbsp; 1000 hours into the collapse of that hope, it is tempting to give up...to admit defeat.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But there is something about his work and this project that suggests otherwise.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HH1oxe19y-4/TanC6pEwR6I/AAAAAAAAA4k/yT7YlnLT0PU/s1600/Fuck-Off-Forbidden-City.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="135" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HH1oxe19y-4/TanC6pEwR6I/AAAAAAAAA4k/yT7YlnLT0PU/s200/Fuck-Off-Forbidden-City.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">"Study in Perspective" (1995) Ai Weiwei</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;">The <a href="http://freeaiweiwei.org/">international outrage</a> immediately after his disappearance may have lessened, but it has not gone away.&nbsp; For me, the slow accumulation of days, photographs, posts, and seeds in a jar speak to the power and importance of Weiwei's work:&nbsp; the vigil builds its own momentum, becomes its own daily practice, a regular contemplation of freedom and its abuse.&nbsp; There is something visually appealing in each individual photo, but also an increasing power in the mass of them -- a power exponentially greater when multiplied across the world.&nbsp; By itself, my little vigil is nothing much -- less than a discarded seed on a concrete floor.&nbsp; But it is not by itself -- nor is Ai Weiwei.&nbsp; </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-czAxI3VpYjA/Tc79m4yoG1I/AAAAAAAAA48/7-v_k4K3hSY/s1600/Photo+May+01%252C+11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-czAxI3VpYjA/Tc79m4yoG1I/AAAAAAAAA48/7-v_k4K3hSY/s200/Photo+May+01%252C+11.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">5/1/2011 7:04 pm CDT: 698 hours</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;">In posting these images each day, I keep my tally of the accumulated hours and end with the phrase: "He is not alone."&nbsp; In the word-economy of micro-blogging, this phrase references much: that Ai Weiwei is not the only one unjustly held by the Chinese police; that there are people in the world who care about him; that we are all connected; that we are all in this world together.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I am fortunate (today) not to be held secretly in prison by my government.&nbsp; But as Ai Weiwei and too many others remind us, that is far from an assured or permanent condition.&nbsp; Freedom requires those with it to fight for it and to fight for those without it.&nbsp; In big ways.&nbsp; In small ways.&nbsp; Everyday.&nbsp; </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0HsLjBOAARA/Tc790iDeNiI/AAAAAAAAA5A/DQs4CMCzziM/s1600/Photo+May+14%252C+9+48+18+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0HsLjBOAARA/Tc790iDeNiI/AAAAAAAAA5A/DQs4CMCzziM/s400/Photo+May+14%252C+9+48+18+AM.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">5/14/2011 10:04 am CDT: 1000 hours</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-30886018509140005362011-03-28T23:38:00.001-07:002011-03-28T23:38:35.678-07:00Will iPad Make a Difference?<br /><br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/jmgray32/BungyNotes?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKb2q6A_aCXJw#5589387610376511778'><img src='http://lh6.ggpht.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TZF-avR2ISI/AAAAAAAAA4E/VWy_gZhLLPE/s288/0.jpg' border='0' width='210' height='281' align='left' style='margin:5px'></a><br />So I got the new iPad. You think it will make a difference? Will I get back to posting more regularly? Let's hope.<br /><br />As usual, the academic year ratcheted up its obligations. Add to that my commitments over at Black Magpie Theory (despite the hopefully temporary downward turn in content production and readers over there), and I haven't been doing much with this blog. You noticed, right?<br /><br />Well, April is the cruelest month -- and it isn't even here yet. It will be a challenge to keep up here even with the new gadget. But I'm liking it. So there's that. <br /><br />How's that for a post that says basically nothing.<br /><br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br /><p class='blogpress_location'>Location:<a href='http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Crackers%20Neck%20Rd,Makanda,United%20States%4037.620792%2C-89.205491&z=10'>Crackers Neck Rd,Makanda,United States</a></p>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-1502128016511676932011-02-12T10:46:00.000-08:002011-02-12T10:46:13.349-08:00Sketchbook Scans: Origins of Klexmur<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T94cmcWglCI/TVbAUD5X4rI/AAAAAAAAA3g/zXZSX-AXKVw/s1600/Klexmur+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T94cmcWglCI/TVbAUD5X4rI/AAAAAAAAA3g/zXZSX-AXKVw/s1600/Klexmur+01.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">First sketch of "Alien Reporter."&nbsp; Does not have name yet.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />I am about twelve strips into a weekly comic I publish over at <i><a href="http://www.blackmagpietheory.com/">Black Magpie Theory</a></i> called, "Klexmur, Alien Reporter."&nbsp; It's been a life-long fantasy of mine to create and publish a regular comicstrip.&nbsp; If you've paid attention here, you know I have more than a passing interest in comics.&nbsp; I also approach my work from a performance studies background, which holds (at least in some versions) that the best way to understand something is by doing it.&nbsp; So, several months ago I weaseled my way onto the collaborative blog <i>Black Magpie Theory</i> with a promise to write regular commentary and try my hand at political cartoons.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qhaUccxMeWQ/TVbHfEUSyOI/AAAAAAAAA3k/C4p3KUOAE9E/s1600/Klexmur+02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qhaUccxMeWQ/TVbHfEUSyOI/AAAAAAAAA3k/C4p3KUOAE9E/s320/Klexmur+02.jpg" width="193" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">1st Klexmur cartoon as envisioned in my sketchbook.</span></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table>About a month into that gig (can you call it a "gig" if you are providing the content for free?), I hit on a concept for a regular strip: What if a reporter were an alien, providing an "alienated" perspective on both current events and our journalistic practices?&nbsp; It's not exactly an original idea.&nbsp; As I note in the accompanying commentary for that <a href="http://www.blackmagpietheory.com/2010/11/klexmur-reports-on-a-death-cult/">first strip</a>, <i>Strange Horizons</i> lists "An alien observes and comments on the peculiar habits of humans, for allegedly comic effect" as number 16 in its ever growing list of <a href="http://www.strangehorizons.com/guidelines/fiction-common.shtml">cliches</a> it doesn't want to see in submitted S/F stories.&nbsp; Meh.&nbsp; But this was a collaborative blog focusing on Left-leaning political commentary.&nbsp; And did I mention that we don't get paid for the content?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HaiJ9qxvuzM/TVbIs_vzrwI/AAAAAAAAA3o/T74r_JAyAVs/s1600/Klexmur+03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HaiJ9qxvuzM/TVbIs_vzrwI/AAAAAAAAA3o/T74r_JAyAVs/s320/Klexmur+03.jpg" width="201" /></a></div>Klexmur has an earlier ancestor in my web presence.&nbsp; Back in the 90s I used to be active on <i>Vampyres</i>, a listserve (remember those?) devoted to academic and popular interests in vampires.&nbsp; The postings there were pretty evenly split between academic discussions of the vampire in films and literature, announcements and reviews of new publications, and the creation of "fluff" (on-line vampire fiction).&nbsp; Whether a critic or a fluff writer (most participants did both), the norm on the site was to take on a suitable vampire-themed posting persona.&nbsp; I chose the mysterious persona of "The Gray Adept," who overtime was revealed to be an alien ethnographer studying subaltern vampire (and other supernatural) communities on Earth.&nbsp; I pay homage to this origin in the Klexmur series with <a href="http://www.blackmagpietheory.com/2010/12/klexmur-interviews-a-vampire/">this comic</a>; at <i>Vampyres</i> we actually produced a long collaborative fluff&nbsp; saga about the dire consequences of what happened to a vampire who made the mistake of trying to drink alien blood.&nbsp;<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lsgELrVgS3c/TVbJOsBqjsI/AAAAAAAAA3s/XV4_7FiuxwM/s1600/Klexmur+04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lsgELrVgS3c/TVbJOsBqjsI/AAAAAAAAA3s/XV4_7FiuxwM/s320/Klexmur+04.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My original plan for his name.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>Klexmur owes much to The Gray Adept, although in the absurd world of comics, Klex can be "out" as an alien without raising eyebrows (although he did once <a href="http://www.blackmagpietheory.com/2010/11/klexmur-interviews-an-alien/">get arrested</a> in the Nevada desert).&nbsp; Originally, his name had one less vowel.&nbsp; Something happened in my first post, and I accidentally added the "e."&nbsp; I originally left it out in a rather oblique reference to Superman:&nbsp; "Mr. Mxyzptlk" is one of Supe's oldest nemeses, a visitor from the 5th dimension who's vowel-less name is a bit of a pronunciation mystery.&nbsp; I wanted Klex to have a similarly alien name.&nbsp; However, when I made that first posting error, I was amused with the other Superman reference in his name -- "<a href="http://vleonard.com/shimmygloss/fanfic.html">Clex</a>" is "slash" fanfiction in the Smallville Superman mythos that imagines explicit sexual encounters between Clark Kent and Lex Luthor.&nbsp; Klexmur already resonated with fan-produced web fiction.&nbsp; I haven't played around much with queer themes in Klexmur (yet!), but they are always potentially there, lurking in the name.&nbsp; Klexmur, by the way, has already <a href="http://www.blackmagpietheory.com/2010/12/klexmur-interviews-another-alien-reporter/">interviewed</a> Clark Kent (or, at least as close as he can within copyright infringement).<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OhzqzFkpHPU/TVbMa07HouI/AAAAAAAAA3w/YF7VJASDLX4/s1600/Klexmur+05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OhzqzFkpHPU/TVbMa07HouI/AAAAAAAAA3w/YF7VJASDLX4/s320/Klexmur+05.jpg" width="194" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sneak Peek: Klex does Palin drag!</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>As of this posting, I am at about #12 in the Klexmur series.&nbsp; Who can say if I will be able to keep it up?&nbsp; I have a deepening appreciation for the time it takes to do a weekly comicstrip.&nbsp; And of course, BMT seems to be at a bit of a crossroads, either encountering a seasonal slump or sputtering towards oblivion.&nbsp; The Klexmur images here are scans from my sketchbooks.&nbsp; For the strip, I tend to write out script ideas and loosely plot them out in rough panels in a notebook.&nbsp; The comics themselves are produced digitally, working back and forth between Manga Studio and Photoshop.&nbsp; It takes about 2 hours (sometimes more) for me to produce a strip.&nbsp; Given the other demands on my time, this is sometimes a luxury I can ill-afford.<br /><br />But I like this little guy.&nbsp; Creating Klexmur comics is truly a labor of love.&nbsp; I remain convinced that we need to constantly remind ourselves to take a step back and consider what we are doing...and how we are doing it.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/suvin36interview.htm">Darko Suvin</a> famously announced the defining attribute of S/F as "cognitive estrangement," a particular kind of "alienation" (Suvin directly references Bertolt Brecht's "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distancing_effect">A-Effect</a>" with this idea) that encourages us to consider present conditions through a distanced lens.&nbsp; I think comics provide a similar function, although with a different stroke.&nbsp; And Klexmur?&nbsp; He lands his saucer right where these two forms meet.&nbsp; <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LpWYyazhY7g/TVbM5ZvRpmI/AAAAAAAAA30/NT0p7jc-tb8/s1600/Klexmur+Preview+B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LpWYyazhY7g/TVbM5ZvRpmI/AAAAAAAAA30/NT0p7jc-tb8/s400/Klexmur+Preview+B.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-7189584149892650102011-02-06T10:24:00.000-08:002011-02-06T11:01:25.811-08:00Evolution: Biological and Political<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TU7jXlyfrNI/AAAAAAAAA3M/ZrPcJ7STaxI/s1600/Darwin-Evolution.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TU7jXlyfrNI/AAAAAAAAA3M/ZrPcJ7STaxI/s1600/Darwin-Evolution.gif" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Digital Art Piece I made for SIUC's Darwin Week art competition.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>What a curious week this is, beginning with the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan (today) and ending with the 202nd birthday of Charles Darwin (this coming Saturday).&nbsp; Two potent figures in the theory of evolution.<br /><br />Darwin gets credit for "inventing" the theory.&nbsp; Others deserve some credit in there, but Darwin's observations and conclusions are as good as any to give originary credit to.&nbsp; His was an elegantly simple claim, really: that species change to adapt to their environments.&nbsp; This change happens over long period of times and is driven by forces of <i>natural selection</i>.<br /><br />The concept of "survival of the fittest" was subsequently bastardized and taken up by many as scientific evidence of might-makes-right and only-the-strongest-survive social policy.&nbsp; Call this Social Darwinism.&nbsp; Borrowing from Puritanical views that Nature is "red in tooth and claw," here were images of competition where greed and brute force drives the success and failure of species.&nbsp; And if species, why not groups of people?<br /><br />More recent thinking in evolution finds compelling <a href="http://www.science20.com/gadfly/altruism_its_origin_its_evolution_its_discontents">evidence for altruism</a> in species development -- that life in its drive toward ever increasing complexity experiments with, among other things, interspecies cooperation.&nbsp; Survival of the fittest depends as much on cunning and scavenging as it does on brute force.&nbsp; Find a niche and occupy it.&nbsp; Evolution is driven as much by genes being creative as by some desperate need to survive. <br /><br />Odd to think of Reagan as a champion of evolution; in truth, he is <a href="http://www.icr.org/article/presidential-support-for-creationism/">anything but</a>.&nbsp; He famously participated in a failed 1972 law suit as Governor of California to force public schools to teach creationism alongside the scientific theory of evolution.&nbsp; In the White House, he made similar proclamations that evolution is only a theory and that creationism deserved at least equal time if not greater attention for its moral, religious value.&nbsp; Reagan's Creationism would evolve into "Intelligent Design," a bastardization of scientifically nuanced speculation in service of manufacturing support for the Biblical explanation of life on the planet.&nbsp; <br /><br />And yet, many of Reagan's own policies showed a certain preference for survival of the fittest and withdrawal of any assistance for the weak.&nbsp; As Governor of California, he decreased funds to state mental facilities, turning the mentally ill out onto the streets to fend for themselves.&nbsp; For five years as President, he failed to mention publicly AIDS or provide any Federal assistance for AIDS research.&nbsp; When in 1986 he was finally forced to address the issue, he haggled with Congress to keep AIDS funding low.&nbsp; Perhaps like others on the Religious Right, he saw AIDS as divine retribution or a "natural" cleansing of an unwanted biological trait (whether intravenous drug use or unprotected gay sex or blood transfusions or...).&nbsp; His Tickle-Down Economics embraced a model that suggested the poor and middle class should make do with the leftovers of the rich or get rich themselves -- a kind of economic Darwinism, that.<br /><br />If Darwin's evolution is primarily about the passing of traits (or genes, in the common parlance) from one generation to the next, the modern political scene shows a much more accelerated evolutionary cycle with memes.&nbsp; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme">A meme</a> is an informational pattern that travels culturally; some evolutionary biologists like Richard Dawkins posit memetic transfer of information as the true evolutionary advantage humans have over other species that depend mostly on generational genetic tansfer of information.<br /><br />But memes are tricky.&nbsp; Consider that Reagan raised taxes 11 times during his Presidency, nearly tripled the national debit, and grew the size of the Federal government [<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/100474/">cite</a>].&nbsp; Consider that he was the first President to make the US a debtor nation [<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Passerineblue/spoiler-alert-i-was-not-a_b_818948_76373863.html">cite</a>].&nbsp; Consider that he advocated for abolishing nuclear weapons and chided Israel for preemptive military attacks [<a href="http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/2011/02/one-glance-reagan-s-record-shows-he-was-hardly-neocon">cite</a>].&nbsp; Consider that while he arguably ended the Cold War with Russia, his backdoor funding of foreign wars (<a href="http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?irancontraaffair_hostages_and_arms_sales=irancontraaffair_iran_iraq_war&amp;timeline=irancontraaffair">Iran/Contra</a>) and future terrorists (the <a href="http://www.infoplease.com/spot/al-qaeda-terrorism.html">Mujahideen</a> that would become, in part, Al Qaeda) planted the seeds of our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.&nbsp; And yet somehow he has <i>evolved</i> into the darling of the neoconservatives and the Tea Party -- an image of Conservative values, a deficit hawk, a no-compromise champion of small government, a symbol of US might-makes-right foreign policy.<br /><br />But then, that's the difference between a gene and a meme.&nbsp; A gene is biological information at the molecular level that transforms slowly across eons and generations.&nbsp; Those changes are tested in the environment.&nbsp; A meme transforms more quickly and shows incredible capabilities of developing rapidly into myth, an organizing narrative whose fidelity to reality is not important.&nbsp; So today, many will celebrate St. Reagan as they call for magical deficit reduction and smaller government and US exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny, all while ignoring the benefits they reap from the government they so want to destroy or Reagan's much more questionable political record.<br /><br />Let us hope genes win out over memes in the end and evolution provides an answer to self-destructive, congenital stupidity.&nbsp; Or perhaps, from a systems perspective, that is what the global ecological collapse we seem to be entering is all about...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TU7j8uH_DsI/AAAAAAAAA3Q/U9eleBdl1J4/s1600/Reagan-Evolution.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TU7j8uH_DsI/AAAAAAAAA3Q/U9eleBdl1J4/s1600/Reagan-Evolution.gif" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-51027987896475576912011-01-22T16:00:00.000-08:002011-01-22T16:00:08.467-08:00Make Art Anywhere and Any WayIt's been a week since the conclusion of @Platea's Tree-Blog project.&nbsp; The <a href="http://plateastweets.blogspot.com/2011/01/project-viii-tree-blogging-final-map.html">final map</a> of the project turned out quite nice.&nbsp; I also made an animated GIF of the project map which demonstrated how the tree grew across the week.<br /><br />It's a week later and I have been consumed with work of other varieties - the administrivia of the start of a semester!&nbsp; Still, I find myself wanting to bask in the shade of that art tree, to put to work some of the skills I learned from the process.&nbsp; Here, then, is an idea born out of the Dada chance game, "The Exquisite Corpse," and the fun of animated GIFs.&nbsp; Enjoy.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TTtudfwek-I/AAAAAAAAA2o/5KB6Au8A64M/s1600/Long-poem-p1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TTtudfwek-I/AAAAAAAAA2o/5KB6Au8A64M/s1600/Long-poem-p1.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TTtulrNSYzI/AAAAAAAAA2s/ES5uzi9HAvM/s1600/Long-poem-p2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TTtulrNSYzI/AAAAAAAAA2s/ES5uzi9HAvM/s1600/Long-poem-p2.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TTtuuxRNyQI/AAAAAAAAA2w/gH6Q1kV7dA4/s1600/Long-poem-p3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TTtuuxRNyQI/AAAAAAAAA2w/gH6Q1kV7dA4/s1600/Long-poem-p3.gif" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-30763289674945741602011-01-14T10:48:00.000-08:002011-01-14T10:48:35.456-08:00On Stillness and Motion<iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/18786269" width="400"></iframe><a href="http://vimeo.com/18786269">Scurry</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/bungy32">Jonny Gray</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[Elements of this video come from <a href="http://downbythewaterfront.typepad.com/down_by_the_water_front/2011/01/tree-blogging.html">here</a> and <a href="http://soundcloud.com/salt-theory/last-word-to-the-bird">here</a>.]</span></span></div><br />A tree has movement.&nbsp; It grows.&nbsp; But it does so slowly, in ways that are almost impossible to see with the naked eye.&nbsp; Meanwhile, around the tree, things scurry and run, fly and fall.&nbsp; The tree, itself, marks this continuum of motion with a grounded trunk and branches that must not be too rigid, that must wave in the wind: stillness at one end and movement at the other.&nbsp; But even that rigid trunk has a little flex to it.&nbsp; And in some cases, trees have been known to walk.&nbsp; I am not talking about J.R.R. Tolkein's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ent">Ents</a> (although they are very cool); I am talking about the <a href="http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-434672?hpt=C2">walking palm trees </a>of Costa Rica.&nbsp; What a wonderful and strange world we live in!<br /><br />So, if we view stillness from some frames of reference as a kind of motion, can we also see motion as a kind of stillness?&nbsp; Perhaps when the motion is contained within a stable frame?&nbsp; Is that stable frame the space around the motion?&nbsp; Or is it the way we interpret the motion -- as cyclical or goalless or imperceptible if you observe it from far enough away?&nbsp; Perhaps we most transform our sense of motion and stillness through interaction, through the work of working together even when we are alone.<br /><br />This week I have been working with collaborative art on-line and the metaphor of a tree.&nbsp; I've been thinking a lot about things that change states and our resistance (sometimes) to that movement, even when it is unavoidable.&nbsp; I've been interested in the desire and dread to fix things (art, people, work, etc.) in place, to own them, to not let them go.&nbsp; And I have been thinking about the remix, the ways in which things are constantly made into other things and how that is both a violent and a creative act.<br /><br />The two pieces I borrowed in my video above resonate for me with this tension.&nbsp; Craig's <a href="http://soundcloud.com/salt-theory/last-word-to-the-bird">sound piece</a> is generated from a program that translated the data of a still photograph (the "Anarchy Tree" of the original @Platea trunk post) into a MIDI sound file, which he then processed and mixed with other sounds (including the woodpecker soundfile from the trunk post).&nbsp; In other words, the stillness of image literally becomes the temporal movement of music.&nbsp; Similarly, Deborah's&nbsp; "Green Man" <a href="http://downbythewaterfront.typepad.com/down_by_the_water_front/2011/01/tree-blogging.html">video series</a> plays with the idea of the fixed camera focused on the fixed tree in dynamic relation to the movement that goes on around the tree and a medium meant to capture images in motion.&nbsp; I wanted to put these two pieces into dialogue, adding a bit of my own video work in keeping with the Tree-Blog aesthetic.&nbsp; <br /><br />Even <a href="http://plateastweets.blogspot.com/2011/01/tree-blogging-map-day-four.html">documenting</a> the Tree-Blog event has had its own dialogue of stillness and motion. The map is, in some ways, an attempt to fix the ephemeral, or at least provide a guide to its murky trajectories through a variety of internet terrains.&nbsp; As I have made the map of the Tree-Blog project each day, I have constantly had to adjust it -- shifting branches to accommodate other branches, re-clustering nodes as they begin to interact, adding in posts I missed from the days before.&nbsp; In other words, the growth of this tree (even as map) has not been a simple linear path, but a constant shifting and reworking.&nbsp; Growth, like evolution, is not precisely linear.&nbsp; Seemingly fixed positions have to shift.&nbsp; "Permanence" is a fiction, a concept created by fantasizing humans that doesn't really have a corollary in nature.<br /><br /><a href="http://plateastweets.blogspot.com/">@Platea</a> is a collective of artists who explore what it means to make art on/with/through social networks of digital information exchange.&nbsp; We tend to favor Twitter as the location of most interest (as revealed by the "@" and our catchy subtitle, "tales from the stweets").&nbsp; But if Twitter is the medium of choice, then we truly <i>do</i> embrace the digital scurry -- the frenetic motion of short messages, streaming information, and posts with rapid expiration dates.&nbsp;<br /><br />Even so, we also concern ourselves with documentation of our projects.&nbsp; We take care to make clear attributions for borrowed works and illustrations.&nbsp; Some of us make clear statements that our contributions are copyright protected and are not available for others' use.&nbsp; Others are interested in using social media to "crowdsource" work that will appear in gallery installations and/or be sold.&nbsp; That is, there are elements to this work that don't want to be ephemeral or lost in some undifferentiated network of exchange. &nbsp; <br /><br />All of which is simply to say, we constantly negotiate this tension of permanence and flow, the lasting and the ephemeral, the individually owned and the collectively enmeshed.&nbsp; I hope this Tree-Blog experiment will not disappear too quickly into the ether of the net; we have certainly tried to document it.&nbsp; But all trees -- even the old giants -- one day fall.&nbsp; And I have a suspicion that our Tree-Blog may prove to be more a mimosa than a sequoia.&nbsp; But hey, out on the "<a href="http://alkaloidofthemonth-jason.blogspot.com/">Alkaloid of the Month</a>" branch, Jason tells me dried mimosa root is a moderate hallucinogen -- so at least there's something in there to help keep the visions coming.<br /><br />Thanks to all who have checked in at my blog this week and taken a chance to participate in @Platea's Tree-Blog project. &nbsp; <br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TSnR-4pEffI/AAAAAAAAA0Y/ez306_0ADhs/s1600/Anarchy+Tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TSnR-4pEffI/AAAAAAAAA0Y/ez306_0ADhs/s400/Anarchy+Tree.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-14017430449066791922011-01-11T15:13:00.000-08:002011-01-11T15:13:59.233-08:00No Argument<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TSzbOF4ONGI/AAAAAAAAA0o/vXx6ryUN3sI/s1600/Treeblog+02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TSzbOF4ONGI/AAAAAAAAA0o/vXx6ryUN3sI/s400/Treeblog+02.jpg" width="400" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I must not argue with her,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I tell myself.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Just listen,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Be present,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Tell the truth.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">She is losing so much:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Not just the car</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">And the independence it represents,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">But the ability to read,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">To connect,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">To recognize.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The gaps of memory,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Fill in with stories</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">And fears</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Leading to "spells"</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Of paranoia. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Impossible things</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Seem possible to her,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Or at least seem preferred alternatives</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">To the missing</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Time</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Checkbook</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Faces</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Medicine</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Money</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Words </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Life.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I do not argue with her,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Evidence being too fluid</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">When experience cannot be shared.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">She forgets reasons&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">But not the slights</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Nestled deep</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">In the family tree.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">They are her only weapons </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Fighting a family</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Fulfilling her fears.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I want to tap that fire,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Turn it away from dread</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">and focus it on creation.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Lose inhibition, Ma,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Lose the internalized editor,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The constant critic,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The doubt and the depression.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Lose anxiety;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Let go of concern.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Lose the illusions of identity</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">and embrace the you that remains.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">But she cannot choose</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">the gaps.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">And I cannot fathom</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">her suffering</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">despite my listening and</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">commitment to empathy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This is a truth</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I cannot argue with her. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TSzgNgLbO9I/AAAAAAAAA0s/gS-FZYOz-To/s1600/Treeblog+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TSzgNgLbO9I/AAAAAAAAA0s/gS-FZYOz-To/s400/Treeblog+01.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">[This post is part of the @Platea "Treeblogging" event.&nbsp; It draws on work found <a href="http://stripgenerator.com/strip/462961/buzz-of-the-saw">here</a> and <a href="http://joaniesanchirico.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-initial-contribution-to-plateas.html">here</a>.&nbsp; It also connects with my life and the lives of those close to me.&nbsp; Sometimes the tree is a family tree.]</span></div>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-37615315223742554792011-01-10T14:58:00.000-08:002011-01-10T14:58:48.067-08:00Tree-Mixing and Tree-Blogging<iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/18640495" width="400"></iframe><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/18640495">What I Saw</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/bungy32">Jonny Gray</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br /><br />Our little tree is off to a slow but steady start today.&nbsp; I am most consumed by the opportunity to use this project to learn some new skills.&nbsp; The "mix" I have made as soundtrack for this little video is first baby-steps, to be sure.&nbsp; But those steps took some considerable time today.&nbsp; Time lost, in that I might have been doing something else that needed doing.&nbsp; Time gained, in that in addition to the "object" I created, I learned some new skills.<br /><br />This is Shiva's dance around the trunk of our tree, the acknowledgement that every act of creation is an act of destruction.&nbsp; To note this is not to dismiss destruction, not to embrace or excuse the buzz of the saw and the drone of the bulldozer.&nbsp; But it is to see those things as having, in their right measure, a place.&nbsp; Was John Muir concerned about the loss of any great sequoias, or the rate of their loss and for such trivial gains?&nbsp; From time management to resource extraction, the question is rarely either/or but how much of each at the expense of the other.&nbsp; <br /><br />We make art together, in this project (and always, really), but we also still make art alone.&nbsp; What does it take to make something and know that someone else might unmake it?&nbsp; Is art, as we are perhaps most familiar with it, too invested in its own preservation as the lasting product of the lone, inspired creator?&nbsp; To (re)mix is to engage in a violent act, the making of something while breaking something else.&nbsp; I look out the window at the gnarled branches of a tangled wood; I look at the warm and knotted patterns in my floor boards.&nbsp; A tree -- as branch, as plank, as wooden spoon -- knows this fundamental truth about transformation and creation.&nbsp; It sometimes burns with the knowledge.<br /><br />This video and post drew inspiration from <a href="http://plateastweets.blogspot.com/2011/01/project-viii-tree-blogging-trunk.html">here</a> and <a href="http://experimentalcomics.blogspot.com/2011/01/four-times-four-sounds-of-tree.html">here</a>.&nbsp;Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-32789402784997670602011-01-08T14:27:00.000-08:002011-01-08T14:27:49.240-08:00Getting Ready to "Treeblog"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TSjImdFUZtI/AAAAAAAAA0Q/KeqQ6rNe4tA/s1600/Post+Image+03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TSjImdFUZtI/AAAAAAAAA0Q/KeqQ6rNe4tA/s320/Post+Image+03.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>&nbsp;Okay, so I've been away from the blog.&nbsp; I don't think I am alone in taking a holiday hiatus from blogging, but this time the cause was even more pernicious.&nbsp; Let's just say my holiday visit home was fraught with more drama than usual.&nbsp; Parents age and sometimes they need extra care...that they resist.&nbsp; This was a holiday of intervention, which means it was no holiday at all.&nbsp; I don't mean to be coy, but I honestly don't think I am ready to blog about it.&nbsp; If ever.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TSjE828FC7I/AAAAAAAAAz8/KYjB_VQIMfY/s1600/Post+Image+02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TSjE828FC7I/AAAAAAAAAz8/KYjB_VQIMfY/s320/Post+Image+02.jpg" width="203" /></a></div>So, instead, let me give you a heads-up for the upcoming week that will likely see a lot of activity on this blog and several of the others on which I participate.&nbsp; As I've written about <a href="http://bungynotes.blogspot.com/2009/10/covering-acconci.html">before</a>, I am a member of an on-line performance/art collective, <a href="http://plateastweets.blogspot.com/">@Platea</a>.&nbsp; Next week, @Platea will be conducting another on-line event for which I am the primary architect.&nbsp; The project is the eighth @Platea happening to date and is titled, "<a href="http://plateastweets.blogspot.com/2010/12/platea-project-viii-tree-blogging.html">Treeblogging</a>."&nbsp; This <a href="http://plateastweets.blogspot.com/2010/12/platea-project-viii-tree-blogging.html">hyperlink</a> will take you to my write up of the protocol as well as to a little <a href="http://plateastweets.blogspot.com/2011/01/pla-tree-a-brief-meditation-on-trees.html">meditation</a> on why folks interested in art and the internet might find the image of a tree interesting and resonant.&nbsp;<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TRQAUnLWWoI/AAAAAAAAAzw/TTZwxTlb5wM/s1600/retweet-icon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TRQAUnLWWoI/AAAAAAAAAzw/TTZwxTlb5wM/s1600/retweet-icon.jpg" /></a></div>The general idea of the project is a pun on "reblogging" (Tumblr) and "retweeting" (Twitter) while adding an element of "remixing."&nbsp; On Monday (1/10), I will post to the @Platea blog some open source material (text, jpeg, sound file, etc.) that others may use to create their own art and post it on their blogs, Flickr accounts, YouTube accounts, Twitter feeds, Facebook pages, etc.&nbsp; As the tree of interconnected and mutually inspired artworks grows, folks may sample not only from the original material posted at @Platea but also from the works others make from that material.&nbsp; <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TRQBOJX7n5I/AAAAAAAAAz0/pNMGI_fKBNw/s1600/Tree-Blogging+Sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TRQBOJX7n5I/AAAAAAAAAz0/pNMGI_fKBNw/s320/Tree-Blogging+Sample.jpg" width="231" /></a></div>If you play along (and I hope you will!), be sure to follow the <a href="http://plateastweets.blogspot.com/2010/12/platea-project-viii-tree-blogging.html">protocol</a> for <i>linking forward/linking back</i> to your work.&nbsp; I'll be tracking folks' contributions this way and building an interactive map of the happening, posted daily at the @Platea blog.&nbsp; You can use that graphic to follow the works others are making and the links between them.&nbsp; <br /><br />The mapping may get beyond me...the territory always exceeds the map, after all.&nbsp; But it is the effort that counts, right?&nbsp; And I am looking forward to burying myself in this art project as the perfect tonic for a difficult holiday break.&nbsp; At least this promises to be a more fun engagement with connections and reinterpreting what others have said...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TRQALAk7ZBI/AAAAAAAAAzs/R0iKVENg_jA/s1600/Post+Image+04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TRQALAk7ZBI/AAAAAAAAAzs/R0iKVENg_jA/s320/Post+Image+04.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-41991972458880403312010-12-11T16:30:00.000-08:002010-12-11T16:30:27.156-08:00The Number Thirty-Two<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQODS4UJ_I/AAAAAAAAAys/-VFOdBedCpk/s1600/32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQODS4UJ_I/AAAAAAAAAys/-VFOdBedCpk/s400/32.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Occasionally someone asks me, "What's your favorite number?"<br /><br />You know, like we are supposed to be partial to an amount.&nbsp; I favor a quantity.&nbsp; I heart a point in an order.&nbsp; I have an intense connection with an integer.&nbsp; <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQO33ba7UI/AAAAAAAAAy8/l1jNITUOGag/s1600/600px-MA_Route_32.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQO33ba7UI/AAAAAAAAAy8/l1jNITUOGag/s200/600px-MA_Route_32.svg.png" width="200" /></a></div>But it is not so hard a question for me to answer.&nbsp; My number is 32.&nbsp; I've known it is "my" number since about the age of 13 when, at a summer camp for boys, it kept appearing to me.&nbsp; Or rather, I was attuned to it.&nbsp; Whatever.&nbsp; I just kept seeing it everywhere.&nbsp; After a while, my cabin-mates would tease me about it.&nbsp; They kept seeing me see it.&nbsp; On lists, on packaging, in prices, on road signs, in books, in winning scores, etc.&nbsp; Maybe a few of those manifestations were camp pranks on their part, but not all of them.&nbsp;<br /><br />And then the big summer finale: the last night of camp was a "banquet."&nbsp; Not exactly formal (boys' summer camp, remember?), but still a little more pomp for the circumstance.&nbsp; And on the table-setting placard, there it was: The camp was celebrating its 32<span style="font-size: x-small;">nd</span> summer of operation.&nbsp; Creepy, eh?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQORZNRmXI/AAAAAAAAAyw/p85Ua2R16X0/s1600/32-Equation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQORZNRmXI/AAAAAAAAAyw/p85Ua2R16X0/s200/32-Equation.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Okay, maybe not.&nbsp; There are such things as coincidence and serendipity.&nbsp; The occurances of 32 faded after that summer, but I knew from then on that I had an association with a number.&nbsp; It became my go-to answer for "what's your favorite number?" or "pick a number?" And, as it turns out, it is a powerful number to have associations with.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQOcZkbNOI/AAAAAAAAAy0/R3UVEwMyH8k/s1600/32-Equation-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQOcZkbNOI/AAAAAAAAAy0/R3UVEwMyH8k/s200/32-Equation-2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>First, some math:&nbsp; 32 is 2 to the power of 5.&nbsp; It is both twice a square (16) and half a square (64).&nbsp; It is half a square (again, 8 to the power of 2) and half a cube (4 to the power of 3).&nbsp; It is the sum of the first three positive integers raised to the power of themselves.&nbsp; It is also a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyland_number">Leyland number</a>, since it is a possible answer to the equation x to the power of y plus y to the power of x.&nbsp; And finally, it is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_number">happy number</a>, which is a bit more difficult to explain but, you know, I'm happy it's happy. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQOqixsG6I/AAAAAAAAAy4/QMYyaoc5GD4/s1600/Tree_of_Life_Diagram_with_names.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQOqixsG6I/AAAAAAAAAy4/QMYyaoc5GD4/s200/Tree_of_Life_Diagram_with_names.jpg" width="112" /></a></div>Then there are the mystical associations with the number 32.&nbsp; In some traditions, 32 <span style="font-size: x-small;">C.E.</span> is considered the year Christ was crucified.&nbsp; In the Kabbalah, God is said to have made the world in 32 phases.&nbsp; Hence, in the <a href="http://www.jewfaq.org/kabbalah.htm">Kabbalistic Tree of Life</a>, there are 10 emanations (Sephiroth) and 22 paths between them resulting in the number 32 -- the paths are usually numbered starting at 11, so the last path ("Tau") is the 32nd path.&nbsp; In several psychic practices, the <a href="http://zero-point.tripod.com/holistic/path32.html">32nd Path</a> is considered a link between the physical and astral plane and is the route shamen and psychics take to practice extra sensory perception. 32 is also considered the occult opposite of 23, another powerful number about which whole books and films (bad ones...with Jim Carey!) have been made.&nbsp; <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQQT0i9aUI/AAAAAAAAAzE/fnQILvpxSTk/s1600/Chess_Board.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQQT0i9aUI/AAAAAAAAAzE/fnQILvpxSTk/s200/Chess_Board.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>32 is the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit that water freezes at sea level.&nbsp; It is half of a chess/checker board, representing your home territory.&nbsp; It is the number of completed and numbered piano sonatas by Ludwig von Beethoven.&nbsp; It is the size of a databus it bits (i.e. 32-bit), and so carries some significance for computer graphics and programmers.&nbsp; It is the number of teeth in an adult human, including "wisdom" teeth.&nbsp; It is the number of pages in the average comic book (not including the cover).&nbsp;<br /><br />Yeah, yeah.&nbsp; It's a number.&nbsp; And numbers line up with things in the universe.&nbsp; And this one lined up with me when I was 13.&nbsp; So maybe that is, well, "lucky."&nbsp; Maybe that is a reason to favor it.<br /><br />After that summer, I didn't really think much of it until I approached the age of 32.&nbsp; I worried that I had been given some sort of cryptic premonition.&nbsp; Was I gonna die?&nbsp; Make my fortune?&nbsp; Change the world?&nbsp; Only, my 32nd year came and went and nothing really momentous happened.&nbsp; Soon, I put it out of my mind again.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQPIioMWPI/AAAAAAAAAzA/nWsu9b2mtgU/s1600/story.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQPIioMWPI/AAAAAAAAAzA/nWsu9b2mtgU/s320/story.jpg" width="219" /></a></div>And then, well, lately I've been seeing 32s again.&nbsp; Noting them.&nbsp; They catch my eye.&nbsp; And mostly I wonder, what's that about?&nbsp; Visiting UNT in Denton, TX this last week, a fellow artist/scholar suggested a comic book I should read: "Promethea" by Alan Moore.&nbsp; This was just a friendly suggestion for a good comic; we hadn't been discussing my number mysticism.&nbsp; There are purposely 32 issues of this comic.&nbsp; And it discusses various occult traditions, including the 32nd Path.&nbsp; And when I read this gorgeous and smart comic, I thought, "Oh wow, here it is again."&nbsp; Only this time the numerical manifestation was a little more charged; this time it came with some meaning attached.&nbsp; Not exactly answers, really, but a little more confirmation of the number's relevance in mysticism and art.<br /><br />Maybe it is odd for a 45 year-old man to have a favorite number.&nbsp; Maybe it is odder still to see cryptic messages from the universe in a comic book.&nbsp; But then I realized: It's been 32 years since that summer when the number 32 came to me.&nbsp; So, me?&nbsp; I'm listening!&nbsp; And I am looking for the path.&nbsp; Outside tonight, the temperature is falling to the freezing point and the first winter precipitation is sticking to the trees.&nbsp; And I feel a little bit like half a square and half a cube.&nbsp; And God help me, this number does make me happy!<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQS3x2wbbI/AAAAAAAAAzI/-tIshrTRfsM/s1600/500px-Go_32.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TQQS3x2wbbI/AAAAAAAAAzI/-tIshrTRfsM/s400/500px-Go_32.svg.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-5606530910594907272010-11-12T04:41:00.000-08:002010-11-12T04:41:41.060-08:00San Francisco Bound<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TN0yxGttxxI/AAAAAAAAAyM/SQruXbRshbg/s1600/02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TN0yxGttxxI/AAAAAAAAAyM/SQruXbRshbg/s320/02.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TN0y_6sCdfI/AAAAAAAAAyQ/iPPFNgJbQCA/s1600/12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TN0y_6sCdfI/AAAAAAAAAyQ/iPPFNgJbQCA/s320/12.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Well, children, it's happened again.&nbsp; November rolls around and it is time to head off to the National Communication Association annual conference.&nbsp; This year, it's in San Francisco, the city by the bay.&nbsp; And I am so looking forward to visiting the town and seeing old friends in my profession.<br /><br />Here's what I will be up to:<br /><ul><li>Presenting a paper on doing environmentally-themed solo performance.</li><li>Presenting the Christine Oravec Research Awards in Environmental Communication.</li><li>Participating in a four-year-out planning roundtable discussion for Performance Studies <br /></li><li>Contributing to a panel on thinking beyond the digital frame, co-sponsored by the Performance Studies Division and the Visual Communication Division.</li></ul>More on that last one.&nbsp; Several of my friends and colleagues at different universities got this crazy idea to see what you could do with a digital picture frame.&nbsp; Thinking outside the box, so to speak, of what these increasingly ubiquitous image tools might allow.&nbsp; In my case, I have worked with two and the random slide show function to create an ever changing poem (there are 170 possible combinations of images and words -- below and above are three possibilities.)<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TN0zTeFxrdI/AAAAAAAAAyU/mnk6bNh-eLc/s1600/05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TN0zTeFxrdI/AAAAAAAAAyU/mnk6bNh-eLc/s320/05.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TN0zghoBU5I/AAAAAAAAAyY/cIAw89PETfI/s1600/14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TN0zghoBU5I/AAAAAAAAAyY/cIAw89PETfI/s320/14.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>In and around the presentations will be the usual school recruitment parties (the recession hit ours pretty hard this year), meals with old friends and colleagues, and the occasional opportunity to go see the city.<br /><br />Since the conference butts up against our Thanksgiving Break, I will be sticking around for a few extra days.&nbsp; But this Pomo Homo Nature Nut isn't planning on spending the extra time (sans partner) in the Castro.&nbsp; Instead, I am heading down to Big Sur for a little backpacking and Kerouac.&nbsp;<br /><br />All of which is simply to say that I will likely not be posting to the blog next week, but I will follow the week after with a full report of my adventures -- intellectual and wild and all the wonderful possibilities of combining those two.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TN0z7-pdB1I/AAAAAAAAAyc/PXRKG5VfCsU/s1600/06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TN0z7-pdB1I/AAAAAAAAAyc/PXRKG5VfCsU/s320/06.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TN00LaWk1nI/AAAAAAAAAyg/vdd_GjDvk3E/s1600/02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TN00LaWk1nI/AAAAAAAAAyg/vdd_GjDvk3E/s320/02.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-64711006865974246572010-11-04T16:20:00.000-07:002010-11-04T16:20:45.341-07:00We've Been Down This Road Before...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMlMbqR_MI/AAAAAAAAAxk/LzLwIAuRn7M/s1600/Rocky+Comfort.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMlMbqR_MI/AAAAAAAAAxk/LzLwIAuRn7M/s200/Rocky+Comfort.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>...but maybe the familiarity offers more dread than consolation.&nbsp; Will we ever get off this cycle?&nbsp; Off the pendulum swing between the Parties?&nbsp; Out of the continual blame game and the reaction formations that follow?&nbsp; I take no comfort from stolid reminders that this is what happens in midterm elections.&nbsp; I try to remember that it could have been worse.&nbsp; I take some small&nbsp; solace from the realization that more Blue Dog Democrats lost their seats in this election than the truly Progressive ones did, although in the grand scheme of things that means that both parties have moved more toward their poles.&nbsp; I don't expect anything but partisans slinging threats like stones for the next two years.&nbsp;<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMnj4oEPOI/AAAAAAAAAxo/hea8EkViQ00/s1600/Progress.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMnj4oEPOI/AAAAAAAAAxo/hea8EkViQ00/s200/Progress.jpeg" width="150" /></a></div>The thing is, I thought we were actually getting somewhere.&nbsp; It's frustrating that the accomplishments of the last two years get so little play in the media and hold so little traction with the voters.&nbsp; Yeah, maybe jobs needed more attention than health care.&nbsp; Yeah, maybe excessive eagerness for bipartisanship in the face of an obdurately obstructionist opposition led to health care reform that was a flawed sausage of a bill.&nbsp; Sure, there were plenty of missteps and errors along the way.&nbsp; But there were also tax cuts.&nbsp; There was also some credit reform.&nbsp; The most offensive bailouts came under the guy in charge before, and much of the rest of the other government rescues have (a) been paid back and/or (b) clearly prevented this recession from being worse than it could have been.&nbsp; While unemployment is bad, the rate of employment and recovery has clearly turned around since the new guy took over.&nbsp;<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNM6LGjZaqI/AAAAAAAAAyE/Oxl13WhzZ8o/s1600/School+House.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNM6LGjZaqI/AAAAAAAAAyE/Oxl13WhzZ8o/s200/School+House.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>Was Tuesday night really just about taking it out on the janitor because he didn't clean up the trash from the last eight year's frat party fast enough?&nbsp; The beer kegs and swimming pool made of jello shots weren't government overreach, but the request for more cleaning supplies and a couple of dumpsters somehow is?&nbsp; But hey, hangovers and the regrets that come with them cause the most anger, right?&nbsp; It's easier to scream at the guys making that racket picking up the bottles and cans than it is to get mad at the now long gone host of the bacchanal.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMpT_99pqI/AAAAAAAAAxs/W2Y1y0VwKpc/s1600/Crackers+Neck.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMpT_99pqI/AAAAAAAAAxs/W2Y1y0VwKpc/s200/Crackers+Neck.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>Forgive me if I am under the impression that the folks who were throwing down at that party and the folks complaining so loudly now are, in large part, the same people.&nbsp; Not all of the ones making the most noise (in either instance) are the ones in control of the party or the response.&nbsp; But they sure do wave a great misspelled sign, don't they?&nbsp; And if they cross a line into racism or head-stomping violence, you can always blame it on passion that exceeds their educational opportunities.&nbsp; <strike>Critique</strike> Note the latter and you announce yourself an elitist.&nbsp; Elitists are always such party-poopers.&nbsp; We hate them, right?&nbsp;<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMqZVDUNbI/AAAAAAAAAxw/FLBp9eYCzYU/s1600/Thunderstorm+and+Country+Club.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMqZVDUNbI/AAAAAAAAAxw/FLBp9eYCzYU/s200/Thunderstorm+and+Country+Club.jpeg" width="150" /></a></div>But see, I have a feeling that the Republicans and their new-found populist energy in the Tea Party are headed for their own difficult tensions (finally!).&nbsp; There's a storm brewing in the Old Boy's Club.&nbsp; The rabble are not likely to behave, and the establishment has rules of conduct it insists upon.&nbsp; When no one was in power, everyone could wave signs and offer promises of support.&nbsp; But now that there is actual power on the table, now that they run the House, they can no longer just sit back and say no.&nbsp; They can claim an adamant posture of defiance, but now it has to come with policy they actually put forward.&nbsp; And while they could agree on hating anything the black guy and the white woman came up with, they will find it a little more tempestuous coming to agreement about what they want to put forward.&nbsp;<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMrs3WM2QI/AAAAAAAAAx0/Pv0kSH2b3Tw/s1600/Widdows.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMrs3WM2QI/AAAAAAAAAx0/Pv0kSH2b3Tw/s200/Widdows.jpeg" width="150" /></a></div>And all of that would be just so amusing to watch if there weren't consequences, if there weren't lives on the line and bodies in the road.&nbsp; They say their primary goal is to make sure the black guy won't get elected in 2012.&nbsp; They promise to repeal that monster of a bill on health care. The say they will stymie any and all climate bills -- either because global warming is a hoax or because now is not the time to act given the economy and all.&nbsp; They say they will cut the budget, and yet we've yet to hear (ever!) exactly how.&nbsp; It will be harder to put words to action when <i>they</i> will be responsible for the blood that flows -- either because they are holding the scalpel or withholding the sutures.&nbsp; And while the dead don't vote, their surviving relatives do.&nbsp; This is a lesson they have had to learn before.&nbsp; This is a road they have taken us all down before.&nbsp; Why do they never learn from their past?&nbsp; Why do they keep taking us on the same dead end detours?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMtlWrrePI/AAAAAAAAAx4/EJttjZSFbos/s1600/Lincoln+Douglas.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMtlWrrePI/AAAAAAAAAx4/EJttjZSFbos/s200/Lincoln+Douglas.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>We've been through storms and blood before.&nbsp; It is part of our national heritage that we have survived these times, even when the debates turned violent.&nbsp; But at least, in those times, there was debate.&nbsp; There was a sense that we could make arguments and assess them on their merits.&nbsp; We could put them one against the other and let the best answer emerge in between.&nbsp; What happens when we replace those reasoned and structured arguments with meme manipulation and (poorly spelled) sign waving.&nbsp; What has become of a country where politics is played like sports, the loudest side winning in the pep rally?&nbsp; Point out not just a flaw in an argument but a demonstrably false claim of fact, and they say, "so what?"&nbsp; Too many times I've read that the Tea Party specifically and the bulk of voters generally don't care about facts.&nbsp; I am asked to accept this observation as fact, and the evidence is overwhelming that it is accurate.&nbsp; But shouldn't that as much as anything else scare the living shit out of us?&nbsp; I hear claims in these days after the midterm elections that "America has spoken" and that the Republicans have their second chance if not a mandate.&nbsp; But when I listen to what America has said, I find the arguments incoherent. These are the boozed and bamboozled crying out for an aspirin and for mommy to make the pain go away.&nbsp; They want their country "back" but not forward -- except that they have a very skewed sense of what back would mean.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMvSk8zdNI/AAAAAAAAAx8/kfVFhWtgs-Q/s1600/Silver+Bullet.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMvSk8zdNI/AAAAAAAAAx8/kfVFhWtgs-Q/s200/Silver+Bullet.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>The ultimate problem as I see it (and it crosses demographic and ideological divides) is that everyone wants the quick fix.&nbsp; No one wants to deal with consequences beyond blaming them on someone else.&nbsp; No one is willing to do the work or make the sacrifice to solve the problems.&nbsp; Instead, we'd rather cast Others as the monster and then find the magical solution that will vanquish them forever.&nbsp; We cannot see that we are all, all of us, vampires looking vainly in the mirror for a monster and unable to see our own reflection.&nbsp; To speak this truth is to join the "blame America first" crowd.&nbsp; It is to deny our Manifest Destiny of exceptionalism, our supernatural state as Super Power.&nbsp; We are all too happy to be the villagers with pitchforks and torches -- we embrace that mob mentality as the essence of democracy.&nbsp; And we scream all the louder when confronted with the sad fact that there are no external monsters and there is no magical antidote.&nbsp; We scream in part in frustration.&nbsp; We scream mostly because we know the screaming will create the monster (or summon someone who will).&nbsp; And once the monster is confirmed, the magic bullet has to be out there too -- if we only scream loud enough and long enough to find it.&nbsp;<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMye2Q77KI/AAAAAAAAAyA/G8fzWsfPGNA/s1600/Sunset.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TNMye2Q77KI/AAAAAAAAAyA/G8fzWsfPGNA/s200/Sunset.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>We've been down this road before.&nbsp; Maybe we will change course, but probably only to go down it again.&nbsp; As we are learning all too well lately, the infrastructure of our roads (and our collective souls) suffers from this abuse.&nbsp; We cannot stay on this cycling route forever.&nbsp; We are driving our once mighty empire into its final days, not like heroes riding off into the sunset, but like frightened children facing the dark.&nbsp; We scream and poke at each other.&nbsp; We rant and stomp our feet, sometimes on one another.&nbsp; When we should huddle together and support each other, too many of us claim the primacy of individual freedom and head off to get lost in the dark alone.&nbsp; It's okay.&nbsp; They know if the made-up monsters don't get them, the group will take them back.&nbsp; And if they do somehow make it through the night, it will be that conveniently invisible hand coupled with their own self-evident self-worth that is responsible for their success.&nbsp; Day or nght, we are filled with delusions.&nbsp; Sadly, it is those delusions that fuel this car, regardless of who is driving and who is in the back.&nbsp;<br /><br />And no one, apparently, has a good road map or knows how to read the signs.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(<b>Note:</b>&nbsp; These are all unmodified pictures of road signs near where I live.&nbsp; One of them is the road I live on.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Care to guess which one?&nbsp; I am betting it's probably not your first guess.)</span></span></div>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801663515410909094.post-52492356110843251502010-10-30T10:17:00.000-07:002010-10-30T10:17:27.451-07:00Happy Halloween!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TMxKDHx2_HI/AAAAAAAAAxM/Zx6lEtOA_co/s1600/Ivan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TMxKDHx2_HI/AAAAAAAAAxM/Zx6lEtOA_co/s400/Ivan.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Greetings, friends.&nbsp; 'Tis the season of the ghoulish and macabre.&nbsp; Which is to say, for most of us, our favorite holiday.&nbsp; The veil between worlds is at its thinnest in the time of <a href="http://www.chalicecentre.net/samhain.htm">Samhain</a>.&nbsp; Restless spirits wander the world, ready to make mischief and play tricks.&nbsp; And ain't that a treat?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TMxPFVwx44I/AAAAAAAAAxQ/xP082cPi6Xw/s1600/Carnival.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TMxPFVwx44I/AAAAAAAAAxQ/xP082cPi6Xw/s320/Carnival.jpg" width="230" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">I've always enjoyed the transgressive holidays, which mostly means Carnival and Halloween -- those times of the year roughly coinciding with the equinox when we celebrate excess and our darker drives.&nbsp; The globe shifts on its axis and it seems like we are willing to contemplate less ordered, less constrained ways of being.&nbsp; Ignore these seasons at your peril.&nbsp; At the very least, we all need an opportunity to blow off a little dark steam.&nbsp; </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TMxP0bHPR3I/AAAAAAAAAxY/D2tuMIxRi18/s1600/Acid+Bath.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TMxP0bHPR3I/AAAAAAAAAxY/D2tuMIxRi18/s320/Acid+Bath.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">In <a href="http://halloween054.blogspot.com/">Carbondale</a>, the university used to shut down the dorms and send the students home for Halloween.&nbsp; We have a bit of a reputation for riots.&nbsp; That's going a bit far, to be sure, but there is always something in the air.&nbsp; Maybe when you put on a mask you feel like you can get away with anything.&nbsp; Maybe we all crave a little chaos.&nbsp; Anarchy rules, with most of us preferring <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley">Aleister Crowley</a>'s abbreviated version of the Witch's Rede:&nbsp; "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."&nbsp; The full <a href="http://www.wicca.com/celtic/wicca/rede.htm">Wiccan Rede</a> comes with a bit of a caveat:&nbsp; "<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">These Eight words the Rede fulfill: An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will."&nbsp; Something worth remembering when the spirits of the night encourage you to throw a brick through a storefront window.&nbsp; Or worse.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TMxPTv1KCFI/AAAAAAAAAxU/h0FqF5w-Hao/s1600/Vampire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TMxPTv1KCFI/AAAAAAAAAxU/h0FqF5w-Hao/s200/Vampire.jpg" width="191" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">I prefer to let the call to transgress manifest in art.&nbsp; Costume parties are a fun opportunity to build a concept onto my body.&nbsp; Cards and posters are a fun opportunity to play comic arts.&nbsp; We used to decorate our house, but have let the workload eclipse this opportunity for seasonal play.&nbsp; Still, every now and again, I hang a Blair Witch <a href="http://www.woodsmovie.com/">cluster of sticks</a> and bones in a tree around town -- the simplest decorations often being the creepiest.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">It's a beautiful fall weekend, folks.&nbsp; Don't let this day and night pass you by.&nbsp; Carve a pumpkin.&nbsp; Celebrate the harvest.&nbsp; Light a bonfire (but be sure to tend it).&nbsp; Play dress up.&nbsp; Play a gentle prank.&nbsp; Dance skyclad in the moonlight.&nbsp; And when the devout hypocrites accuse you of inviting Satan into your heart, remind them that most of these rituals are about tricking him into passing you by.&nbsp; He prefers the shriveled hearts of those who forgot the divine charge to "judge not lest ye be judged." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TMxQTIjo5wI/AAAAAAAAAxc/ayPxCpqifHA/s1600/Skinny+Woodcut.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B0KEk0Nvj7g/TMxQTIjo5wI/AAAAAAAAAxc/ayPxCpqifHA/s400/Skinny+Woodcut.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>Jonny Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04461895600346750968noreply@blogger.com3